CRYPTOGAM 1 A. A 7 



and functions of their different parts ; 3dly, their eco-- 

 nomical and medical properties. 



The first part of this division ought to be confined 

 to the actual knowledge of the plants themselves, 

 without any consideration of the artificial means by 

 which that knowledge is to be obtained. 



The systematical arrangement of Linnaeus is only 

 a contrivance to facilitate the knowledge of the vege- 

 table world j to know where to place an individual 

 plant, or where to look for it, without considering the 

 relation or affinity it may have to any other in nature. 

 As words are disposed in a dictionary, by an arrange- 

 ment of their letters, so is the Linnaean system, and 

 with as little reference to radical principles. Thus the 

 letters b,.o, t, in a dictionary, are alphabetical, and 

 by pursuing the same system, the v/ord botany is 

 readily found- j yet the philologist, when he is thus in 

 possession of it and has ascertained the situation of 

 this combination of letters, he yet knows nothing about 

 what relation it bears to other words, whether it 

 indicates a thing or an action, or any quality or modifi? 

 cation of either : this knowledge must be the result of a 

 separate inquiry. In like manner the Botanist counts 

 the stamina of a plant, which, for example, may be 

 five, with one pistillum in the midst, and immediately 

 he finds it in the Ciass and Order Pentandria mono- 

 gynia. From this information alone, he knows no- 

 thing about the plant itself; from these signs or cha- 

 racters he cannot tell whether it be a Rhamnus> 



