INTRltDUCTION. 15 



nation of motives were perhaps needful, when I 

 am going to increase the generic groups, per- 

 haps beyond any thing ever done of the kind. 

 Linneus had only 1444 Genera, in his last edi- 

 tion towards 1778 ; Persoon in 1807 had already 

 2300 phanegamous Genera. Jussieu in 1789 

 had nearly 2000 ; but Necker in 1790 only 1842. 

 The 48 Cryptogamic Genera of Linneus have 

 swollen to 400. Every year and every writer 

 adds to the number. Ever since 1815 I had as- 

 certained and classified nearly 3000, whereof 

 500 were my own. It is this labor, indicated in 

 my analysis of Nature, that I now propose to 

 enlarge, rectify and publish : whereby as many 

 as Linneus ever had will be added or revised, 

 and about 1000 will be totaly new, even now, as 

 late as 1836, or not yet generally adopted. 



Altho' this attempt may astonish or perplex 

 some timid Botanists, my labors will be duly 

 appreciated ere long, and my unceasing efforts 

 to improve the science meet with a kind recep- 

 tion from the new improving school. The ax- 

 iom that a multiplication of names enlarges our 

 ideas, holds true in all cases and sciences, since 

 they are based on facts or mental entities. 

 Some Linneists have vainly tried to to throw 

 discredit on generic reform, and called us Gen- 

 era-mongers. We may in return call them 

 Genera-Shufflers^ who want to squeeze plants 

 into improper Genera, and delay improvements 

 by opposing the corrections of botanical blunders. 

 It is to them that we owe the superfluity of sy- 

 nonyms: they often shuffle plants into 3 or 4 

 Genera, as Linneus did for Heliopsis, until it 

 must at last form a Genus of itself. It is a fact 

 that almost all plants of doubtful Genera, are 



