HZ STUDIES OF NATURE. 



trope, to that of the French, or Peruvian helio- 

 trope : and that of the flowers of the Cretan fta- 

 chis, to that of the flowers of the horehound, or 

 of the pennyroyal. To this might afterwards be 

 added the differences in colour, fmell, favour, which 

 diverfify the fpecies of it. There is no occafion 

 to compound foreign terms to defcribe forms 

 which are familiar to us. Nay, I defy any one to 

 convey by Greek and Latin words, and with the 

 moft learned turn of periphrafis, the fimple colour 

 of a bark of a tree. But if you tell me it re- 

 fembles that of an oak ; I have the fhade of it at 

 once. 



Thefe approximations of plants have this far- 

 ther utility, that they prefent us with the combined 

 whole of an unknown object, without which we 

 can form no determinate idea of it. This is one 

 of the defects of Botany, it exhibits the characters 

 of vegetables only in fucceflion ; it does not col- 

 lect them, it decompounds them. It refers them» 

 indeed, to a claffical order, but not to an indivi- 

 dual order. This, however, is the only one which 

 the weaknefs of the human mind permits us to 

 catch. We love order, becaufe we are feeble, and 

 becaufe the leaft confufion difturbs us ; now, there 

 is no order which we can adopt more eafily than 

 that which approaches to an order which is fami- 

 liar to us, and which Nature is every where pre- 



fenting. 



