OF BOTANICAL ARRANGEMENT. $51 



Superintending Mind is dij^played throughout 

 Nature, in whatever way \vc contemplvite her 

 productions. 



When we take into consideration the mul- 

 titude of species which compose the vegetable 

 kingdom, even in any one country or ohmate, 

 it is obvious that some arrangement, some 

 regular mode of naming and distinguisliing 

 them, must be very desirable, and even ne- 

 cessary, for retaining tliem in our own me- 

 mory, or for communicating to others any 

 thing concerning them. Yet the antients 

 have scarcely used any further classification 

 of plants than the vague and superficial divi- 

 sion into trees, shrubs and herbs, except a 

 consideration of their places of growth, and 

 also of their qualities. The earlier botanist- 

 among the moderns almost inevitably telf 

 into some ladc arrangement of the o}}jects of 

 their study, and distributed them under th.e 

 heads of Grasses, Bulbous plants, ^ledicinal 

 or Eatable plants, &c., in which their suc- 

 cessors made several improvements, but it is 

 not worth while to contemplate them. 



The science of Botanical Arrangement fiftt 

 assumed a regular form under the auspices of 

 Conrad Gesner and Ca^salpinus, who, inde- 



