60 Mr. Rosco£ on Artificial and Natural 
blishment of his natural orders, and by his learned dissertations 
prepared the way which led to the pérfect — of vege- 
table productions *." p. | 
—Now if, by these and similar observations, it die meant merely 
to prove that Linnzus was fully convinced of the importance of 
studying the natural affinities of plants, and that he considered 
it as the highest department of the science, there can be no difti- 
culty in acceding to them ; but if they be intended to show that 
he was of opinion that any arrangement of plants on a natural 
system was to be preferred to, and might supersede the use of, his 
own artificial arrangement, (and if this was not the object in 
view, the introduction of the concessions of Linnzus is of no 
avail) it may justly be observed that these authors have either 
mistaken or not fairly represented the meaning of Linnaus.— 
That natural affinities are to be studied, and that this depart- 
ment of the science cannot be too diligently cultivated, was his 
decided conviction. He has even frequently contemplated the 
possibility of an arrangement which should include in their natu- 
ral orders the whole vegetable kingdom ; but in alluding to such 
an event, it was always as a mere possibility, of the completion 
of which he had scarcely a distant hope: still less would he have 
been inclined to admit that any such arrangement, even if it 
could be formed, could supersede that which he had with so 
much assiduity demonstrated, and to which he invariably adhered 
to the close of his life. "To collect together detached sentiments 
from his writmgs for the purpose of proving that he preferred a 
natural ind to his own, as a general arrangement, is to. per- 
vert his opinions, to render him the adversary of his own labours, 
and the suicide of his own fame. To the firm and inflexible con- 
viction of the practical superiority of his own method, all the 
* Ventenat, Discours, p. 19.. 
passages. 
