$ P: f. 
PREFACE. xxv 
the means of better illustrating the subject, by the introduction of many 
collateral observations altogether incompatible with the Linnean classi- 
fication. We adopt this arrangement the more readily, as, in addition 
to the advantages it possesses for the above purpose, we are inclined to 
believe that the facilities it affords for making out a genus hitherto un- 
known to us, are nearly as great as that of the artificial system, while it — 
conveys at the same time much more solid information. We allow 
that it is usually much more difficult to determine the natural order to 
which a plant belongs, than to discover the Linnean class and order; 
but this diffieulty is more than compensated, by the facility with which, 
when it is once overcome, the genus, even in large orders, is afterwards 
fixed upon : besides, there is here an inducement to collectors to gather 
the specimens in all states from flower to fruit ; and, indeed, it would be 
often desirable that the specimens were destroyed, if incomplete, rather 
than that they should fall into the hands of botanists who may give 
a name, when a perfect description was impossible. In examining a 
plant by the Linnean system, we have scarcely advanced one step when 
we have discovered its class and order, but the difficulties to be sur- 
mounted are now greater than before: on the contrary, when we have 
ascertained the natural order to which our plant belongs, our difficulties 
are on the decrease, and we have already acquired much information re- 
garding its structure, affinities, and properties. As numerous observa- 
tions and experiments have shewn that nearly similar virtues are found 
in nearly all the plants of an order, we can thus, without advancing fur- 
ther than the mere determination of the order, often ascertain the quali- 
ties of imperfectly known or newly discovered plants. To a medical 
man, a knowledge of such a system, it must at once be acknowledged, is 
of the highest importance : the properties of one known plant guide him 
to discover another, a substitute for it, in a country where the original 
remedy cannot be procured; nor need he do this empirically, and with 
fear or hesitation, but he can proceed upon fixed principles, and with 
confidence. B 
"The natural method having thus in view not the mere naming of ——— 
plants, which ean of itself be interesting to only a limited number of inc» — ——— 
dividuals, but the classifying them according to the groups which Na- — - 
ture herself forms, or rather as Nature forms only species, according to - 
the resemblance that one tribe of vegetables bears to another, as to ex- 
ternal form, internal structure, and properties, we must consequently 
conform as much as possible to her laws: and to know these we must 
first attain a precise idea of the organization of plants, studying minute- 
ly all their parts, and the functions of each. This knowledge, however, 
may be obtained from any good elementary treatise *.- 
me Ti ie js that by Dr Limdley, en- 
Pedes Outline of th "Fou See of | meds Pri 1o. — ; 
e 
/ 
