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system, those who have added new genera to the original 

 ones of Linnaeus, or, in general, those who have any way 

 applied his method to practice, had properly understood 

 it. They would then have perceived that its author had 

 always natural affinities in view ; his aim, however in- 

 completely fulfilled, according to our advanced know- 

 ledge, having constantly been, to place genera together 

 in natural affinity or progression, as far as their relation- 

 ship could be discerned. At the same time he uses an 

 analytical method, at the head of each class in his Sy- 

 stema Vegetabilium, in which the genera are disposed 

 according to their technical characters. Murray, in 

 compiling the fourteenth edition of that work, has been 

 inadvertent, respecting this essential part of its plan. 

 Indeed it is probable that he was not competent to judge 

 of the affinities of the new genera, introduced from the 

 Supplement um, or from the communications of Jacquin, 

 Thunberg, 8cc. Yet surely he might have perceived the 

 affinity of Banksia to Protect, rather than to Ludwigia or 

 Oldenlandia ; and indeed Linnaeus himself ought to have 

 discovered the relationship of the latter to Hedyotis, if he 

 did not detect their identity, instead of inserting it be- 

 tween two such strict allies of each other as Ludwigia and 

 Ammannia. To pursue these remarks would be endless. 

 It is hardly necessary to indicate the natural classes, or 

 orders of the Linnaean system, such as the Tetr adynamia, 

 Didynamia, Diadelphia, Syngenesia; the Triandria Di- 

 gynia, Gynandria Diandria, &c. Except the first-men- 

 tioned class, which, if Cleome be removed, is strictly 

 natural and entire, the others are liable to much criticism. 

 We are almost disposed to allow, what we know not that 

 any one has yet observed, that the system in question is 

 the more faulty in theory, for these classes being so natu- 

 ral as they are. Each order of the Didynamia presents 

 itself as a natural order, though the character of that 

 class, derived from the proportion of the stamens, serves 

 to exclude several genera of each order, and to send them 



