STUDY I. 



15 



to plunge into deferts, where they could have 

 found neither fubfiftence nor guide ; nor ventured 

 themfelves among the numerous tribes of barba- 

 rous Nations, whofe language they did not under- 

 ftand ; we fhall find reafon to conclude, that their 

 boafted colleâiionsi however valuable, are flill ex- 

 tremely imperfed. 



In order to be convinced of this, we have only 

 to compare the time employed by them, in making 

 their collecflions of plants, in foreign countries, with 

 that which it coft Le Vaillant to colled thofe of the 

 vicinity of Paris only. The learned Tournefort had 

 already made this a particular fludy ; and, after a 

 mailer fo indefatigable had completed his Work, 

 all the Botanills of the capital, it was thought, 

 might have gone to reft. Le Vaillant y his pupil, 

 had the courage to walk over the fame ground 

 after him, and difcovered fuch a confiderable quan- 

 tity of diftinét fpecies, overlooked by 'Tournefort, 

 that he doubled, at leaft, the catalogue of our 

 plants. He made it amount to fifteen or fixteen 

 hundred. And even then, he did not include in 

 this enumeration, thofe which differ only in the 

 colour of the flowers, and the fpots of the leaves, 

 though Nature frequently employs fuch ligns as 

 thefe, in the vegetable world, to diftinguilh the 

 fpecies, and to form their true charaders. Hear 



what 



