36 ROBERT MORISON AND JOHN RAY 



cotyledons (as Malpighi first called them), those of others only 

 one, a fact which came to be of great systematic importance. 



The classification of the Methodus Nova was maintained by 

 Ray in his Historia Plantarum (t. i, 1686), as well as in both 

 the first (1690) and second (1696) editions of his Synopsis 

 Methodica Stirpium Britannicarum, somewhat improved and 

 more compact in form. His ultimate views were expressed in 

 the Methodus Plantarum emendata et aucta, published in 1703 

 not long before his death. In many respects this final form of 

 his system is a great improvement upon that of 1682 ; more 

 especially in the adoption of the number of the seed-leaves as a 

 systematic character. Ray, it is true, limited the application of 

 this character to herbaceous plants, as he had not brought him- 

 self to give up the old categories of Herbs, Shrubs and Trees : 

 nevertheless, he founded in this work the groups of Dicotyledones 

 and Monocotyledones which persist, though materially altered as 

 to their content, to the present day. 



Ray's Methodus Emendata et Aucta, 1703. 

 DE HERBIS. Flore Destitutae. 



Genus i. Submarinae : Algae, c. 

 ii. Fungi. 



iii. Musci : Bryophyta with Lycopodium. 

 iv. Capillares : Filices. 



Herbae sui generis: Ophioglossum, Pilularia, Salvinia, 

 Salicornia, &c. 



Ploriferae. Dicotyledones. 



v. Flore stamineo: e.g. Urticaceae, Polygonaceae, Cheno 



podiaceae, &c. 



vi-ix. Flore Composito seu aggregate : Compositae, with Dipsa- 



ceae, Eryngium, Globularia. 



x. Flore simplici, semine nudo solitario : e.g. Valeriana, 



Mirabilis, Agrimonia. 



xi. Umbelli ferae. 



xii. Stellatae : Rubiaceae. 



xiii. Asperifoliae : Boraginaceae. 



xiv. Verticillatae : Labiatae. 



xv. Semine nudo, Polyspermae: e.g. Alisma, Ranunculus, 



Potentilla. 



xvi. Pomiferae : Cucurbitaceae. 



xvii. Bacciferae : Bryonia, Tamus, Arum, Polygonatum, Sola- 

 tium, &c. 



