XXVIII. Remarks £n the Genus Dianthus, By Fames Edward 
Smith, M. D. F. R. S. and P. L. S. 
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Read March 5, 1795. 
W HE i a tribe of plants has been kncwn from the earlieft 
times in which any plants were noticed at all, and has 
attracted the attention of all botanifts, as well as of every florift 
and gardener, one would éxpe& it fhould be well underftood, 
and that its fpecies and varieties fhould diftin@ly be known one 
from another. Unfortunately, however, for the acquifition of 
truth, the reverfe feems generally to be the cafe. The afliftance 
which the bulk of mankind lend to any difquifition requiring acute 
judgment or deep inveftigation does not always tend to elucida- 
tion, though infallibly in fome Way or other to confufion. Hence 
fuch an endlefs variety of opinions, obftinately maintained in pro- 
portion to the weaknefs of their foundations, upon fubjects on 
which moft has been thought and written; and hence in their 
turn new fwarms of writings arife from each variety of opinion. 
Happily for the advancement of natural hiftory, it has never been 
a very lucrative ftudy; otherwife even the multiplicity of folid - 
facts on which it is founded could fcarcely have prevented its be- 
coming as disfigured and obfcure as many others that are, 
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