294 Dr. Lindley’s Natural System of Botany. 
to employ the forcible language of Linneus, “ Methodus naturalis 
primus et ultimus finis botanices est et erit,”...... Primum et ulti- 
mum in hoc botanicis desideratum est.’”’ The few persons who re- 
main at this day unconvinced of its advantages are not likely to be 
affected by any arguments that we could adduce. A somewhat 
larger number may perhaps be found in this country who admit the 
importance and the utility of a natural arrangement in the abstract; 
but decline to avail themselves of the advantages it affords in the 
study of plants, because, forsooth, it is too much trouble to acquire 
the enlarged views of vegetable structure which are necessary for 
the application of its principles. It would almost seem, from the 
views and practice of such botanists, that they considered it the chief 
object of a classification to afford the means of ascertaining the name 
of an unknown plant by the slightest examination of its structure, 
and with the least possible expenditure of thought. 
In the first edition, Dr. Lindley entered into some detailed expla- 
nations to show the fallacy of the common opinion that the artificial 
system of Linnzus is easy, and the Natural System difficult of ap- 
plication. The sentiments of the public having undergone so great 
a change upon this subject within the last five or six years, that he 
finds it no longer necessary to adduce these considerations, and ac- 
cordingly commences at once with a developement of the principles 
on which the Natural System is founded, viz. ‘That the affinities of 
plants may be determined by a consideration of all the points of re- 
semblance between their various parts, properties, and qualities ; that 
thence an arrangement may be deduced in which those species will 
be placed next each other which have the greatest degree of rela- 
tionship ; and that consequently the quality or structure of an im- 
perfectly known plant may be determined by those of another which 
is well known. Hence arises its superiority over arbitrary or arti- 
ficial systems, such as that of Linneus, in which there is no com- 
bination of ideas, but which are mere collections of isolated facts, 
not having any distinct relation to each other.”—(Preface, p- Vil. ) 
We have never met with a more clear and succinct account of the 
principles on which the primary divisions of the vegetable kingdom 
rest, than that comprised in the following extract. Those a 
with the first edition will perceive that the author has changed 
Opinions respecting the number of these primary divisions, or classes ; 
the , or Flowering plants with naked ovules (compri- 
sing the Conifer, Cycaden; and, according to Brongniart and 
