* , the late Sir J. E. Smith. 11 



the exact path which he and his master trod. May I be 

 allowed a few remarks upon this point, in reference to the 

 scientific character of Sir J. and to the subject in its general ap- 

 plication. In the science of which we are now more immediate- 

 ly speaking, as well as in every department of human know- 

 ledge, it is an evil of no small danger to form a bigotted 

 attachment to the scheme of any man, or so blindly to adopt 

 his opinion as to shut the eyes to any views, merely because 

 thev oppose the opinions of an individual, however able. All 

 are liable to error, and no one ought to suppose that any de- 

 partment of human science has been advanced so far by any 

 individual, as to admit of no further discoveries by subsequent 

 inquirers. That Sir J. had not formed this bigotted attach- 

 ment to the works of Linnaeus is proved by the spirit of his 

 own writings. The motto he prefixed to his Flora Britanni- 

 ca was a proof of his intentions. " Nuliius addictus jurare in 

 verba magistri."' Take the arrangement of genera in his 

 system of British Botany, especially of those which Linnaeus 

 had laboured the least successfully, those of the natural orders 

 Gynandrioe, Cruciferce, Umbelliferce, and we shall find Sir J. 

 departing from his guide, and adopting the results of his own 

 observation and the suggestions of Richard, Brown, De Can- 

 dolle and other eminent modern botanists. In particular he 

 followed the masterly formation of genera in the Cruciferas by 

 Brown, and his own arrangement of the genera in the order 

 Umbellifera^, evinces very high original powers of botanical 

 combination. He has made use of such additional lights as 

 authors subsequent to Linnaeus's time have thrown upon the 

 subject — he has advanced, but he advanced with caution ; and 

 surely if it be proper to go along with alterations and im- 

 provements, it is no less the part of an accurate student to 

 retain such principles as are established, to pause before he 

 adopts changes which will supersede principles which he sees 

 no reason to think are incorrect. If, in a science like botany, 

 almost overwhelmed as it is with its own weight, it is allowable 

 to make alterations, change names, and abolish long establish-r 

 ed characters, the whole science must soon fall back into its 

 primitive chaos and confusion, and every succeeding botanist's 



