418 



some have entered very deeply and successfully into the 

 accurate principles of generic and specific distinction, as 

 Dillenius, who hardly gave a thought to general arrange- 

 ment ; while many systems have been planned by men 

 who had no correct ideas of the natural principles of dis- 

 crimination or affinity. 



It seems as if the science of botany were no sooner 

 destined to emerge from obscurity and confusion, by a just 

 perception on these various subjects, than it becomes in 

 danger of plunging again into darkness by a neglect of 

 them. The natural principles of arrangement for a scien- 

 tific knowledge of plants, and a permanent discrimination 

 of their families and species, have been no sooner distin- 

 guished (at the suggestion of Linnaeus) from an artificial 

 scheme, for their convenient investigation, than these dif- 

 ferent objects are confounded. Local Floras, for begin- 

 ners, are disposed according to natural orders ; as if 

 plants could be made out by them in an analytical man- 

 ner, — which the most learned could scarcely attempt. 

 This w r ould perhaps be of small consequence, did not the 

 depreciation of the artificial system of Linnaeus induce a 

 neglect of those great and important principles, that di- 

 dactic precision independent of all systems, to which his 

 own fame and the advancement of every branch of natural 

 science are owing. If any of his principles should prove 

 to be ill-founded, or his laws objectionable, either with 

 regard to the characters or the names of plants, let those 

 who are competent by all means amend them. Let Lin- 

 naeus himself be brought back to his own wise laws, which 

 he too often transgresses. 



But let not inadvertence or ignorance take place of his 

 sagacity and experience, and publish their crudities with- 

 out reading his works ; founding genera without knowing 

 any sound rules for their discrimination, and giving names 

 according to futile principles which have been scouted 

 over and over again. 



The French nation, always aiming at a paramount au- 



