IG MANUAL OF BOTANY 



the artificial and natural sj^stems depend, and the particular 

 merits and disadvantages of the two kinds of system respec- 

 tively, we proceed in the next place to describe the mode 

 of construction of such systems, commencing with those of an 

 artificial nature, which, however, will be only treated of very 

 briefly. 



Section 1. — Artificial Systems of Classification. 



The first artificial system of any importance, of which we have 

 any particular record, is that of Csesalpinus, which was promul- 

 gated in 158B. Only 1.520 plants were then known ; and these 

 were distributed into fifteen classes, the characters of which were 

 chiefly derived from the fruit. The next systematic arrangement 

 of an artificial character was that of Morison, about the year 

 1670. He divided plants into eighteen classes, which were con- 

 structed according to the nature of the flower and fruit, and the 

 external appearance of the plants. The systems of Hermann and 

 others were also constructed upon somewhat similar principles, 

 while that of Camellus was framed from the characters presented 

 by the valves of the pericarp, and their number. In the system 

 of Eivinus, which was promulgated in the year 1690, plants were 

 divided into eighteen classes ; these were founded entirely upon 

 the corolla — its regularity or irregularity, and the number of its 

 parts being taken into consideration. The system of Christian 

 Knaut was but a slight alteration of that of Eivinus. That of 

 Tournefort, which was promulgated about the year 1695, was for 

 a considerable time the favourite system of all botanists. About 

 8,000 species of plants were then known, which were distributed 

 by Tournefort into twenty-two classes. He first arranged plants 

 in two divisions, one of which comprised herhs and under -shrubs, 

 and the other trees and shrubs : and each of these divisions was 

 then divided into classes, which were chiefly characterised ac- 

 cording to the form of the corolla. Many other systems were 

 devised which were simply alterations of the foregoing, as that 

 of Pontedera. Magnolius, however, framed a system entirely 

 on the calyx ; while Gleditsch attempted one in which the classes 

 were founded on the position of the stamens. All the above 

 systems were, without doubt, useful in their day, and paved the 

 way for the more comprehensive one of Linnaeus. 



LiNN^AN System. — This celebrated system was first pro- 

 mulgated by Linnseus in his ' Systema Naturae,' published in 

 the vear 1735 ; and although it was somewhat altered by subse- 



