> 
Dr. SurTrn's Remarks, &c. 293 
No genus, except perhaps that of rofes, juftifies the above re- 
marks more than Dianthus; nor is fcarcely any one lefs under- 
ftood. This obfcurity does not feem to have arifen, as in the Gera- 
nium tribe, from a cafual intermixture of fpecies, either in a wild 
or cultivated ftate; nor does it, as in Rofa, originate in the fpecies 
being immenfely numerous, and very nearly refembling each other, 
though it muft be confeffed their fpecific differences are, like thofe 
of roles, very difficult to define by methodical characters. The chief 
fource of confufion has been the incorre& labours of authors. 
This genus, by the elegance and fragrance of.moít of its fpc- 
cies, as well as the frequent occurrence of many of them through- 
out Europe, has been noticed more or leís in every botanical 
publication. The older botanifts, emerging as it were from a thick 
cloud of ignorance and book-learning, to a view of Nature in broad 
daylight. eid not at once acquire tbe faculty of fceing ; {till longer 
have looked upon the face af Natus as e a balloon | in gi air. 
They could diftinguifh a foreft tree from a rofe bufh; they faw 
the earth was clothed with flowers, and one great us of 
their obfervation feems to have been, that fome were red, yellow; 
or blue, others white; they difcovered that the fields were green 
with grafs, but fcarcely noted that all grafs was not the fame ; 
nor did they dream there were tribes below that rank of vegetables, 
fcarcely lefs numerous than thofe above it, and no lefs accurately 
diftinguifhed, no lefs carefully foftered by the beneficent hand of 
Nature, than all the gorgeous ornaments of their own flower- 
gardens. When the fcience began to make a progrefs under the 
fuperintendance of fome rare genius of gigantic powers, as a 
Geíner or Cæfalpinus, while each of its footíleps was accurately 
noted and delineated by the fcrupulous fidelity of a Clufius, fa&s 
on faéts were gradually accumulated, and each new obfervation 
led 
