78 HISTORY OF BOTANY. 



leaves little for the pen of the biographer in the way of 

 striking incident. The amount of work that he did was 

 prodigious, and we shall be best enabled to appreciate the 

 man by reference to his publications. Chief among them is 

 * The Vegetable Kingdom ; or the Structure, Classification, 

 and Uses of Plants, illustrated upon the Natural System,' 

 1846. It is a large work of over 900 pages, and is illustrated 

 by upwards of 500 pictures, which are not only beautifully 

 executed, but so well selected as to show the student almost 

 at a glance the method of classification, by dissections which 

 exhibit the peculiarities of particular parts or organs, as 

 fruits, seeds, stamens, pistils, ovaries, or the arrangement 

 of the floral whorls. Lindley divides the vegetable kingdom 

 into seven classes ; these again into fifty-six alliances, as he 

 calls them ; and these into 303 natural orders, which proceed 

 from the simplest forms (Diatoms) to the most complex. 

 Each order is described as to structure, an account is given 

 of its distribution, and some of the most important and 

 striking genera with their uses; and at the end of each 

 chapter a list of the recorded genera, and the number, as 

 near as may be, of species. Lindley is much to be admired 

 for the clearness of his style, and for his excellent illustra- 

 tions. He was not only a profound botanist, but a popular 

 writer also ; and yet my experience of some of his professedly 

 elementary works is that they do not completely answer 

 their purpose ; for I remember in a school of about thirty 

 boys, which would give a fair average of intellect and enthu- 

 siasm, not one made any progress in Botany, though the 

 class book was Lindley's ' School Botany,' an admirable 

 work and very light reading to those who understand the 

 subject beforehand. 



We have just noticed the strong predilection of Smith for 

 the Linnean system. Lindley was equally bigoted, or I 

 will say enthusiastic, in favour of the natural system, and 



