INTRODUCTION. 19 



I have always been opposed to the Linnean 

 system and its blunders ; but the natural me- 

 thod has had so long, and has perhaps yet, so 

 many anomalies, that unless they are rectified, 

 the study of affinities will be impeded. Jus- 

 sieu had a crowd of generxi incerta sedis, or 

 annexed to orders without belonging thereto, 

 which were a Dedalus of ambiguity. The mo- 

 dern Decandole, Richard, Lindley, Agardh 

 have partly improved this Labyrinth ; but the 

 clue to guide us is now in our hands ! Let 

 every genus that does not agree in general 

 frame and characters be removed, and placed 

 elsewhere, as I have done. When this is done 

 and generally adopted we may hope to reach a 

 perfect classification : while that of Lindley for 

 instance, is as yet quite loose and inaccurate, 

 as bad as Adanson or Necker's ; since one 

 fourth of his genera do not agree to the com- 

 mon characters ascribed, and some orders have 

 none at all . . . 



This is the ambiguity and absurdity carried 

 from Species and Genera to the National Or- 

 ders ! unless restricted or exploded in all in- 

 stances, we can have no correct nomenclature 

 nor classification. What absurdity to have an 

 order without definition., like the patched genera 

 Gentiana and Convallaria for instance ! a 

 false definition that does not apply to all 

 the Genera or Species, is equal to no definition 

 at all . . 



Our North American Botanists were very 

 late in noticing the natural method, and even 

 now hardly admit of it, or else without restric- 

 tion on its defects. From 1802 to 1804 I was 

 perhaps the only one that followed that new 

 path. Barton, Muhlenberg, and others of that 



