PALM.«. 503 



are akin to the liliaceous tribe, and LinnaMis 

 happily terms them the princes of the vege- 

 table kino-dom. His most numerous remarks 

 coneerniui;' them occur in his Vralvdiones 

 in Ordincs Nafuralcs Plauianun, published 

 by Professor Giseke at Hamburgh in 179-j 

 from private lectures and con\ersations of Lin- 

 nseus. This work liowever is necessarily tuU ot 

 errors and mistakes, not only from its mode 

 * of compilation and die intricacy of the sub- 

 ject, but because Linnycus had only partially 

 studied certain parts of that subject, and was 

 undecided in his sentiments upon thot-:e parts. 

 It was a sinsjular instance of indulsrent libe- 

 rality in him to allow his disciples Fabricius 

 and Giseke to make notes, for their own use, 

 of Mhat he considered himself as scarcely 

 competent to lay in a finished form before 

 the public. We arc obliged to the editor 

 for preserving these valuable though crude 

 materials, and he has shown ability in di- 

 gesting and elucidating them, I should 

 scarcely, for my own pju't, have thought it 

 right to furnish still more crude a/id imper- 

 fect guesses and opinions, from manuscripts 

 ivhich their illustrious author had purposely, 



