fags 
CLASS Xx, 
_ CRYPTOGAMIA. 
=== j 
Ir ape) pnewny: that the attention of Linnzeus was 
much less engaged by the Class Cryptogamia, than by the 
other ise tok fu formed of sc with more peiere 
fructifications. It was his glory to have established a system 
UpoR the organs of generation, (the stamens and pistils) 
of all others the most essential parts of a plant, and this 
system he has wrought up to such a state of perfection, 
that little, compared to what he himself has done, remains 
for his successors to do ; except the additions it may receive 
from more extended researches in countries im thecty, or 
not at all explored before. But the plants of the Crypto- 
garni Class, not falling under his peculiar system, were to 
im, less interesting, and therefore, pa were less 
attended to. Of the four natural Orders into which he 
divided this class, he seems chiefly to have improved our’ 
knowledge of the Finices. ‘The Muscr and the ALcx 
had been so successfully explored and so excellently figured 
by Micheli and Dillenius; and Gmelin having done much 
on the subject of the Fuci, there remained, in these 
extensive tribes, but little more for Linnzus to do, than to 
. distribute and characterize them according to his own ideas. 
The Funei, at one time, attracted his attention, but the 
difficulty of preserving them in a state fit for a 
together, and the impracticability of transporting his books 
along with himself in his various journies, seem t6 have 
checked his pursuits ; neither could he benefit, as we now 
do, by the almost innumerable figures which have been 
published since the formation of his system, From these 
causes he has done but little in the Fune1, and that little 
has been ill understood. Our countryman, the excellent 
Ray, paid great attention to these subjects ; but for want 
of figures, or more extended descriptions, it is often diffi- 
Cult, sometimes impossible, to determine his species, 
