PREFACE. 11 



and how any of its branches may be cultivated further, 

 my purpose is answered. The subject has naturally 

 led me to a particular criticism of the Linucean system 

 of arrangements, which the public, it seems, has expect- 

 ed from me. Without wasting any words on those 

 speculative and fanciful changes, which the most ignor-. 

 ant may easily make, in an artificial system ; and withr 

 out entering into controversy with the very few compe- 

 tent writers who have proposed any alterations ; I have 

 simply stated the result of my own practical observations, 

 wishing by the light of experience to correct and to 

 confirm what has been found useful, rather than rashly 

 to overthrow what perhaps cannot on the v/hole be ini, 

 proved. 



As the discriminating characters of the Linnasan sys- 

 tem are founded in nature and fact, and depend upon 

 parts essential to every species of plant when in perfec- 

 tion ; and as the application of them to practice is, above 

 all other systems, easy and intelligible ; I conceive noth- 

 ing more useful can be done than to perfect, upon its 

 own principles, any parts of this system that experience 

 may show to have been originally defective. This is 

 all I presume to do. Speculative alterations in an arti- 

 ficial system are endless, and scarcely answer any more 

 useful purpose than changing the order of letters in an 

 alphabet. The philosophy of botanical arrangement, or 



