10 



called Pollen, which, by falling on the Stigma of 

 the Pistillum, is the cause of complete fructification. 6 

 Upon these two parts alone, Linnaeus established 

 the principle of his classification by which he has 

 made a Botanical Dictionary, that enables you to find 

 with more facility any plant that is described by ano- 

 ther, or to insert ,one yourself, with more certainty of 

 its not being mistaken, now, or at any future time: 

 this is the great and principal use of his system of ar- 

 rangement/ 



e Linnaus has thus expressed his opinion on this subject. 

 " While plants are in flower, the pollen falls from the an- 

 therae, and is dispersed abroad. At the same time that the 

 pollen is scattered, the stigma is then in its highest vigour, and 

 for a portion of the day at least is moistened with a fine dew. 

 The pollen easily finds access to the stigma, where it adheres, 

 and being mixed with the fluid of the stigma is conveyed to the 

 rudiments of the seed " 



f The ancient Botanists knew no regular system of Classi- 

 fication; they collected in Chapters or in Sections tho^e plants 

 which appeared to them to resemble each other in the greatest 

 number of relations. It is in this manner tha< Theophrastus,* 

 Dioscorides,-f and other authors, who are considered as syste- 

 matic botanists, have arranged Vegetables. The single mark 

 which characterises the Class among the moderns is arbitrary, 

 and therefore different in different systems. In Tournefort, 

 the petals ; in Ray, the fruit ; and in Linna&us, the stamina, 

 furnish Classic characters. 



* Theophrastus, the father of systematic Botany, was a na- 

 tive of Eresus in Lesbos, and died at the very advanced age of 

 107, i n the year 288 before Christ. 



f Dioscorides was a Greek physician, supposed to hav<? 



