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engravings, thus presenting to the reader's view, figures, as well as de- 

 scriptions of the plants. In the chapter on the systems of classification, 

 we have an interesting account of the various authors of systems — the first 

 of whom appears to have been Andreas Caesalpinus, a native of Arezzo, in 

 Florence, some time Professor of Botany at Padua, and afterwards phy- 

 sician to Pope Clement VIII. He is called by Linne, primus verus sys- 

 tematicus. In his work, " De Flantis," published in 1583, he distributed 

 the 1,520 plants then known, into fifteen classes, the distinguishing cha- 

 racters being taken from the fruit. About 1670, Dr. R. Morrison, of 

 Aberdeen, published a systematic arrangement of plants ; he divided them 

 into eighteen classes, distinguishing plants according as they were woody 

 or herbaceous, and taking into account the nature of the flowers and 

 fruit. In 1690, Rivinus promulgated a classification, founded chiefly on 

 the forms of the flowers. Tournefort, about the same time, took up the 

 subject of vegetable economy ; he was a contemporary of Ray, and was 

 Professor of Botany, at Paris, in 1683 ; he published his systematic ar- 

 rangement in 1694-1700 ; he described about eight thousand species of 

 plants, and distributed them into twenty-two classes, chiefly according to 

 the form of the corolla — distinguishing herbs and under-shrubs, on the one 

 hand, from trees and shrubs, on the other. The system of Tournefort 

 was, for a long time, adopted on the Continent ; but was ultimately dis- 

 placed by that of Linneus. It is well known how favourably the artificial 

 system of Linneus was received ; but now it is only an index to a de- 

 partment of the book of nature ; it does not, indeed, aspire to any higher 

 character, and, although it cannot be looked upon as a scientific and natu- 

 ral arrangement, still it has a certain facility of application which commends 

 it to the tyro. 



One of the first natural methods of classification was that proposed by 

 Ray, in 1682. He separated flowering from flowerless plants, and divided 

 the former into dicotyledons and monocotyledons ; he may be said to have 

 laid the foundation of that system, which has been more fully developed by 

 Jussieu, in 1789, by De Candolle, in 1819, by Endlicher, in 1836, and by 

 John Lindley, in 1846. The arrangement followed by Professor Balfour, 

 in this class-book, has, for its basis, the system of De Candolle, while some 

 of the divisions are derived from Jussieu and Lindley. 



Part Four treats of Geographical Botany ; from the recapitulation of the 

 chief points connected with Botanical Geography, with which the chapter 

 closes, we take the following — " The distribution of plants over the globe 

 is regulated by climate, more especially by temperature and moisture ; the 

 climate suited to a plant is that in which it can perform all its functions 



