508 
The partial author of the obituary before men- 
tioned, declares the English Flora to be “the last 
best work of the distinguished President of the Lin- 
nean Society, consisting of four volumes octavo, 
and describing the Phenogamous plants and Ferns 
of Great Britain, though its title might imply a more 
limited range: “ Finis coronat opus.” There is no 
Flora of any nation so complete in flowering spe- 
cies, and none of any country in which more accu- 
racy and judgement are displayed. If any person 
should in future contemplate a work of this kind, 
whatever the originality of his information, what- 
ever the novelty of his subject, let him imitate this 
illustrious author in careful remark, in taking no- 
thing upon trust, in tracing every synonym to its 
source, and lastly in arranging his matter in such 
a manner, by the aid of different types, as shall 
render it easy of reference, and point out at a 
glance the nature of it. However mechanical some 
of this may appear, it is absolutely essential to 
be attended to in natural history, where the sub- 
jects are infinite in number, and where aid must be 
derived from every mode of generalizing particu- 
lars.” 
The part of this work which it may be said the 
author himself considered the most original, and af- 
forded him most satisfaction, was the natural order 
of Umbellate. “‘Bya full investigation,” he observes, 
“ of all the organs of fructification, and by distin- 
guishing the tumid bases of the styles from the 
floral receptacle, things hitherto confounded, I have 
characterized the Umbelliferous plants like the rest 
