423 



When we have stored our minds with the names, and 

 a sufficient practical knowledge of the technical distinc- 

 tions of a number of plants, we may try to study their 

 natural affinities awl properties. 



We shull find where we are most likely to meet with 

 an eatable fruit, a medicine of a particular quality, or a 

 texture or substance that may serve any one ceconomical 

 purpose. Thus a sound scientific knowledge is acquired 

 step by step ; and, accordingly, Linnaeus read lectures on 

 the natural orders of plants to his most assiduous and ac- 

 complished pupils only. To begin to teach botany by 

 these orders, would be like putting Harris's Hermes into 

 the hand of an infant, instead of his horn-book. 



Linnaeus, to the last, professed himself but a learner in 

 this abstruse science ; and was so well aware of his limited 

 knowledge, that he never would attempt to construct any 

 general system of natural classification. He did indeed, 

 as his friend Bernard de Jussieu had done, attempt ranging 

 his orders in a simple series, there being a manifest af- 

 finity between some of them rather than others. He went 

 a step further, and formed a sort of map, indicating in a 

 geographical manner the proximity and the bearings of 

 the several orders with regard to each other. This was an 

 original idea of Linnaeus, and it greatly facilitates a com- 

 prehensive notion of the subject. In this state he left it ; 

 and we are indebted to two or three of his pupils, who 

 took notes of his lectures, and with his leave published 

 them, for almost all our knowledge of his principles or 

 opinions. These are often so imperfectly or incorrectly 

 detailed, that we cannot but lament the work was not un- 

 dertaken, or at least revised and corrected, by himself. 



Meanwhile, however, the ancient rivalship between the 

 schools of Upsal and of Paris took the commendable and 

 beneficial form of a just and worthy emulation. To the 

 French botanists we are indebted for the great attempt of 

 moulding into a regular shape the philosophical specula- 

 tions of Linnaeus and of Bernard de Jussieu. The latter 



