( 84 ) 



-XIX. Obfervat'ions on the Briti/h Fuel, with particular Defcriptions of 

 each Species. By the Rev. Samuel Goodenough, LL. D. F. R. S. 

 Tr. L. S. and Thomas Jenkinfon Woodward, Efq. LL. B. F. L, S. 



Read April 7, 1 795. 



GMELIN, profeflbr of botany in the Imperial Academy at Pe- 

 terfburg, and nephew to the celebrated 7!LVi.t\\ox o'i Flora Sibirica, 

 was the firft who wrote profeffedly upon the hiftory of Fuci. His 

 work appeared in 1768. It will ever bear teftimony to his zeal for 

 the caufe of natural hiftoiy, and to his abilities. In his mofl: ela- 

 borate Hijloria generalh he has mentioned almofl: every fcientific 

 remark that had been made before his time. We have, in due 

 order, his defcriptions of the root, the fructification, his negative 

 generic charader, the theory of the immortal Reaumur, with his 

 remarks upon the infufficiency of it. Nor does he pafs over unno- 

 ticed the philofophical difquifitions on the caufe and origin of 

 plants, and their variation in growth; every where adding his own 

 accounts of what he has actually obferved. If he errs any where in 

 his ideas, ftill his obfervations, being all practical, are truly valuable. 

 Naturalifts cannot keep too clofely in mind the value of a6lual ob- 

 fervation and accurate record ; for all memorabilia of this kind being 

 once fet forth, remain, let fyftems vary as they may, inftruclive to 

 the end of time. The natural figures of a Brunsfelfius will illuftrate 



their 



