22 INTRODUCTION. 
LINNZAN NATURAL SYSTEM. 
23. Some of the strongest upholders of the Linnzean system are influ- 
enced by their veneration for its Author ; whose fame, however will rest 
on a foundation much more durable than this. It is not generally known 
that the advantages of the Natural method have never been more highly 
appreciated than they were by Linnzeus himself. When he framed an 
artificial system for the convenient arrangement of plants, it was with 
the very purpose for which the temporary employment of it has been now 
recommended,—namely to facilitate that acquaintance with the vegetable 
Kingdom, which must be gained before a Natural method can be framed. 
Linneeus himself gave a sketch of the Natural system, explaining the 
principles upon which it might be expected to rest, and he pronounced 
the investigation of the natural affinities to be the great object of his 
studies, and the most important part of the science. He considered the 
artificial system as a temporary expedient which however necessary at 
that day, would inevitably give place to the system of nature, so soon as 
its fundamental principles should be discovered. The elucidation of the 
latter, he said is the first and ultimate aim of Botanists; to this end the 
labor of the greatest Botanists should be diligently directed; and the 
merest fragments of this system should be carefully studied. Though 
not,then fully discovered, he spoke of the pursuit of it as held in high 
estimation by the wisest Botanists, and as being little encouraged by the 
less learned. “ For a long time,” he adds, “I have labored to establish it; 
I have made many discoveries, but have not been able to perfect it; yet 
while I live I shall continue to labor for its completion. In the mean 
time I have published what I have been able to discover ; and whosoever 
shall resolve the few plants which still remain shall be my Magnus 
Apollo. Those are the greatest Botanists who are able to correct, aug- 
ment, and perfect this method: which those who are unqualified should 
not attempt.” Those therefore who priding themselves upon their being 
disciples of Linneus continue to employ his temporary and artificial sys- 
tem of classification, to the exclusion of one founded upon Natural prin- 
ciples, i imagining that they are upheld by his authority, quite : mistake the 
views of their great master, and sadly misrepresent his opinions. 
* 24. The knowledge of the vegetable kingdom obtained by Linnzeus, 
however, was far too small in amount, to enable him to frame a Natural 
system upon sound principles. The number of species known to him 
was probably not an eighth part of those with which Botanists are now 
acquainted; and no arrangement, therefore, could be formed, which 
was not marked by many wide and unsightly gaps. Further, so little 
was at that time known of the internal arrangement of the organs of 
plants, that even the distinction between the two principal forms of struc- 
ture in the stem,—evident and well marked as it now appears,—was 
