191 



There is a vast field for investigation in this lovely island 

 of Trinidad. And there are undoubtedly a considerable number 

 of plants that belong to the Compositse yet to be added to the 

 Trinidad Flora, although this order is not so abundant here, as 

 some others, the Leguminosce for instance. But should it not 

 be our lot to make new discoveries, there is yet a constant 

 fascination attached to plants, as seen in their native localities, 

 and also those that nave been preserved for the herbarium, 

 which no one can have any conception of except by actual 

 experience. If any of you can be induced to take up the study 

 of botany I will venture to assert that after the first steps have 

 been taken you will not find it so wearisome and uninteresting 

 as it is generally supposed to be, for I can assure you that a 

 discriminating knowledge is all that is required in the first 

 place, and after studies Avill then decide whether it is worthy of 

 being continued. I am favourable to the opinion that once 

 begun you will not leave it, and my work will not have been in 

 vain. The following remarks are taken from a systematic, 

 economic, and geographical standpoint. 



First as to the systematic arrangement. If we look back 

 for a moment to the history of the classification of plants, Ave 

 find that Linnteus, a Swedish naturalist, was the first to lay the 

 foundation of systematic botany. Previous to his time the 

 science was one cf irregularity and chaos. It was his prolific 

 brain that gave birth to the binomial nomenclature, or, in other 

 words, created a generic and specific name for each individual 

 plant. Linnajus' first work — which was written somewhere about 

 1780 — contained the founda'cion of all systematic botany and 

 was known as the Philosophia Botanica. His Genera Plantarum 

 originated the genera of plants. The Species Plantarum was 

 another of his works, and was written about the same time as 

 the preceding two were, which cannot but shew to either the 

 scientific, or ordinary observer, what a hard working and ex- 

 tremely clever man he must have been. To those who accepted 

 the Linna^an, or as it is often called, the artificial system of 

 classification, great strides in scientific botany was naturally the 

 outcome. A system of classification, which is now the recog- 

 nized mode of grouping plants together scientifically is that 

 known as the natural system, or classification, 



Two celebrated men shine out prominently in bringing this 

 about — John Ray and Jussieu, but the introduction of the 

 natural system into English botany is due to Robert Brown. 

 Sir William Hooker and Dr. John Lindley, for many years two 

 of the leading botanists of England and both voluminous writers 

 on botanical subjects, also adopted and strongly supported the 

 natural classification. The Linnajan system based its arrangement 



