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VI. An Inquiry into the real D'aucus Gingidium of Linnaus. By 

 James Edward Smitft, M.D. F.R.S. F.L.S. 



Read April 1, 1806. 



1 have often had occasion to remark that when Linnaeus adopt- 

 ed species of plants into his systematic works on the authority 

 of other authors, he has been peculiarly liable to error. There 

 seems to be a fatality attending his medicinal plants, no doubt 

 from the great difficulty of penetrating through the clouds with 

 which ignorance, interest and fraud for the most part envelop 

 such articles of the Materia Medica as are brought from remote 

 countries. Even when all these sources of delusion do not exist 

 bad figures and imperfect descriptions are but fallacious Guides; 

 nor is any thing but the sight of a^goocl specimen sufficient to 

 prevent mistakes, even in the most wary, occupied in so vast a 

 study as botany is now become. 



v Sometimes Linnaeus was induced by a striking figure, name or 

 description, to attempt a characteristic definition of a plant 

 which he had never seen. In that case he generally retained its 

 original denomination as a specific name. Now it frequently 

 happened, from the defects of his authorities, or a failure in 

 his own memory, that when he saw the real plant he did not 

 fcuow it, and perhaps described it over again as new. His va- 

 rious editors could scarcely detect such mistakes, and perhaps 

 would hardly dare to suspect them. Even when he commits an 

 error in copying a synonym, they seem afraid of correcting 



s 2 what 



