METHODS OF C^SALPINUS, RTVINUS, &c. ^7!i 



2. Whether the germen be superior or inferior, 



3. Seeds, 1, 2, 3, 4, or numerous. 



4. Seed-vessels, 1, 2, 3, 4, &c. 



The work of Caesalpinus, though full of information, 

 was too deep to be of common use, and excited but lit- 

 tle attention. A century afterwards Morison, Professor 

 of Botany at Oxford, improved somewhat upon the 

 ideas of the last- mentioned writer, but has been justly 

 blamed for passing over in silence the source of his own 

 information. Ray, the great English naturalist, formed 

 a considerably different system upon the fruit, as did 

 Hermann, Professor at Leyden, and the great Boerhaavc, 

 but in these last there is little originality. 



Rivinus, Ruppius and Ludwig in Germany proposed 

 to arrange plants by the various forms of their Corolla, 

 as did Tournefort the illustrious French botanist, whose 

 system is by far the best of the kind ; and this having 

 been more celebrated than most others, I shall give a 

 sketch of its plan. 



In the first place we meet with the old but highly un- 

 philosophical division into Herbs and Trees, each of 

 which sections is subdivided into those with a Corolla 

 and those without. The Trees with a Corolla are again 

 distributed into such as have one or many petals, and 

 th ose regular or irregular. — Herbs with a Corolla have 

 that part either compound (as the Dandelion, Thistle 

 and Daisy), or simple ; the latter being either of 

 one or many petals, and in either case regular or irregu- 

 lar. We come at last to the final sections, or classes, of 

 the Tournefprtian system. Herbs with a simple, mo- 



