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CHAPTER XXIII. 



EXPLANATION'- OF THE LINN.=EA\ AKTIFICIAL SVSTEM. 



The Linnaean System is, as I have already observed^ 

 professedly artificial. Its sole aim is to help any one to 

 learn the name and history of an unknown plant in the 

 most easy and certain manner, by first determining its 

 Class and Order in this system ; after which its Genus 

 is to be made out by comparing the parts of fructifica- 

 tion with all the generic characters of that Order ; and 

 finally its Species, by examining all the Specific defini- 

 tions of the Genus. We thus ascertain the generic and 

 specific name of our plant in Linnaeus, and under those 

 we find an enumeration more or less ample, of its Syno- 

 nyms, or the different appellations it has received from 

 other writers, with a reference to figures in various 

 books ; and as Linnaeus always cites Bauhin's FinaXy 

 which is the common botanical catalogue, or index to all 

 previous works, we thus gain a clue to evcr}^ thing re- 

 corded concerning our plant. Of all this mass of infor- 

 mation and entertainment we shall find nothing more 

 concise, luminous, or engaging, either v/ith respect to 

 the distinctions, uses, or history of plants, than what is 

 diffused through the various publications of Linnaeus 

 himself ; and the same may, with at least equal truth, 

 be said of those of his works which illustrate the Animal 

 kingdom. His magic pen turns the wilds of Lapland 

 into fairy land. He has all the animals of Sweden as 

 much at his call, as our first parent while the terrestrial 



