49G 



each other, by several points of affinity, so as to form a 

 map, rather than a series. The experienced botanist, 

 who peruses the above-mentioned Fragment a, will in most 

 cases readily imbibe the ideas of their author, as to the 

 respective affinities of the genera. In some few instances, 

 as the Dumosce, where he avows his own doubts, and the 

 Holeracea?, where he is unusually paradoxical, it is more 

 difficult to trace the chain of his ideas. Such however 

 was all the assistance he thought himself competent to 

 afford. His distinguished pupils Fabricius and Giseke 

 fortunately took notes of his lectures on natural orders ; 

 and by the care of the latter, to whom Fabricius commu- 

 nicated what he had likewise preserved, their joint acqui- 

 sitions have been given to the public, in an octavo volume 

 at Hamburgh, in 1792. Nor was this done without the 

 permission of their venerable teacher, who told Giseke by 

 word of mouth, when they took leave of each other, that 

 " as he loved him, he had laboured with pleasure in his 

 service ;" adding, that " Giseke was at liberty to publish, 

 whenever he pleased, any thing that he had retained from 

 his own instructions." 



Linnaeus, according to a conversation with Giseke, 

 recorded in the preface of the volume edited by the latter, 

 declined to the last any attempt to define in words the 

 characters of his orders. His reason for this appears in 

 his Classes Plant arum, where he justly remarks, that no 

 certain principle, or key, for any such definition can be pro- 

 posed, till all the orders, and consequently all the plants, 

 in the world are known. He has however so far expressed 

 his opinion, in the work last quoted, as to point out the 

 situation of the seed itself, with respect to other parts, 

 and the situation and direction of its vegetating point, or 

 corculnm, as most likely to lead to a scheme of natural 

 classification. Hence the system of Caesalpinus stood 

 very high in his estimation. He also, in the conversation 

 above mentioned, divides his own orders into three sec- 

 tions or classes, Monocotyledones , comprising the first ten 



