176 LINNiEAN AND NATURAL ARRANGEMENTS OF PLANTS. 



in possession of an extensive knowledge of the subject ; and by the facility 

 with which it has been acquired, it is unfitted or gets a distaste for the more 

 thorough investigation that natural systems require. The former, Dr. Lindley 

 observes, " skims only the surface of things, and leaves the student in the fancied 

 possession of a sort of information which is easy enough to obtain, but which is 

 of little value when acquired"; the latter, the same writer continues, "requires 

 a minute investigation of every part and every property known to exist in plants, 

 but when understood has conveyed to the mind a store of information of the 

 utmost use to man in every station of life. Whatever the difficulties of becoming 

 acquainted with plants according to this method, they are inseparable from 

 Botany, which cannot be usefully studied without encountering them." Sir John 

 Herschel quotes this passage in his Discourse on Natural Philosophy, and 

 remarks that it " characterises justly the merits of natural and artificial systems 

 of classification in general." The same author observes, with regard to the 

 subject before us, that "the classifications by which science is advanced are widely 

 different from those which serve as bases for artificial systems of nomenclature." 



If, then, the natural system is the only mode by which the science of Botany 

 can be advanced, and the adoption of the Linnsean system leads to its rejection, 

 I think it is but a fair conclusion that the adoption of the Linnsean system is 

 " prejudicial to the advancement of the science of Botany." 



But the advocates of the Linnsean system say, that it is so easy, and the 

 natural system so difficult, that whilst the one attracts, the other repels the 

 student of Botany. The best argument that Sir W. J. Hooker offers for 

 arranging his British Flora according to the Linnsean system, is that it enables 

 the student to discover the name of a plant with more facility than the natural 

 system. Now, undoubtedly, the acquiring the names of the classes and orders 

 is much easier in the Linnsean, than the natural system ; but I have no hesita- 

 tion in saying, that a person who understands the distinctions of the classes and 

 orders of the latter, will with much greater facility discover the genus and species 

 of a plant than when he has attained the same amount of information in the 

 former system. For in studying the orders of the natural system he will have 

 made himself acquainted with many points of structure that are afterwards taken 

 into consideration in the distinctions of genera and species. But how different is 

 the case with the artificial system ! when the classes and orders are understood 

 little more than a knowledge of the stamens and pistils has been acquired, and 

 this will help a student but a very small way towards finding the name of a 

 plant. If the knowledge of the number of the pistils and stamens would enable 

 the botanist to find the genus and species of a plant, it would indeed be an easy 

 way of discovering its name ; but as this is a very secondary department in 

 Botany, such a plan could only be valued on this account, and even then it§ 



