ARTIFICIAL SYSTEM. 51 



nera are arranged, in a Synoptical or Analytical man- 

 ner, according to their shortest, most technical, cha- 

 racters. In these, whatever part of the Fructification 

 affords the most decisive or striking characters in 

 each artificial Order or subdivision,takes the lead, the 

 others following according to their importance. But 

 in the above-mentioned Essential Characters (104), 

 at the head of each Genus, the parts of Fructification, 

 whence those characters are derived, should be dis- 

 posed, as has already been observed, according to 

 their relative importance in the particular Natural 

 Order, or Series, to which such Genera belong. 



These are the principles of arrangement which 

 Linnaeus appears to have laid down for himself, and 

 upon which he gradually improved. But in the de- 

 tail of his System he has not always kept them strictly 

 in view; nor have his pupils, followers, or editors, 

 paid the requisite attention to them, especially with 

 regard to those intricate or recondite natural relation- 

 ships, which few of these writers perhaps were com- 

 petent to observe, and to which, it must be confessed, 

 botanists of the old Linnsean school have generally 

 paid too little attention. 



Respecting Nomenclature, it is only necessary to 

 remark, that every Genus should be distinguished by 

 a name, either of Greek or Latin derivation, or formed 

 out of the proper name of some botanist, worthy of 

 such commemoration. Names of barbarous origin 

 have, however, crept in, by the means of Linneeus 



e2 



