L 41 ] 



which he ufed the Latin language caufed him to fpcak 

 and write perfedly aphoriftically. 



Among his various writings it is probable that the 

 bell is his Philofophia Botanica, a work containing more 

 original matter and genuine fciencc than any book 

 which at prcfent occurs to my memory. Something of 

 the playfulncfs of his temper may be obferved in his 

 Critics Botanica, when in his diredlions concerning the 

 appropriation of celebrated names to the genera of plants, 

 he obferves, that a proper connection fhould be preferved 

 between the habits and appearance of the plant and the 

 name from which it has its derivation : and after fome 

 examples he concludes with his own. " Linnasam 

 " dixit eel. Gronovius plantam lapponicam, depreffam, 

 ** vilem, negledam, berevi tempore florentem, a confi- 

 " mill fuo Linnseo." 



His fyftem, now received in every country illumi- 

 Eated by the rays of fcience, may be confidered as the 

 bible of naturcj the great nomenclature of natural 

 fcience ; where every genuine chara<Eler is a family 

 portraiture, and every fpecific defcription a miniature ; 

 and where, by a fev/ fimple appropriate terms, the 

 image of every dlftina objcd on the globe we inhabit is 

 r^fle£led on the mind and the memory. 



For the groffnefs and vulgarity of language ufed in 

 dcpiaing the (hells, I know not what excufe can b^ 



VOL. VIT. — D 3 



