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VI. On Artificial and Naha-al Arrangements of Plants : and 

 particidarly on the St/stems of Lijincrus and Jussieu. By 

 William Roscoe, Esq. F.L.S.* 



Ordines naturales valent de Natura Plantariim ; 

 Artificiales in Diag7iosi Plantarum. Linn. 



T^HAT nature has impressed upon the individuals of her 

 -*■ vegetable kingdom characters sufficient to enable us, not 

 only to distinguish them from each other, but to form them 

 into their proper families and combinations, cannot be doubted. 

 Nor will it be denied that the arrangement of a system of ve- 

 getables, founded upon true natui'al distinctions, would be in 

 the highest degree gratifying. It is not therefore surprising 

 that so many attempts have been made to accomplish this most 

 desirable object; but attractive and splendid as it may be, and 

 certainly as it is known to exist, it is not likely to be ever fully 

 disclosed to our view. — " The majesty of nature" glances be- 

 fore our sight, but as often as we attempt to retain her, she 

 eludes our efforts. — Her vegetable productions are so nu- 

 merous, their characteristics often so difficult to ascertain, they 

 are related to each other by so many ties, that it is in vain to ex- 

 pect that we shall ever be able clearly to define them, and ac- 

 curately to seize upon the true distinctions; so as to combine 

 the whole in the precise order in which they were primarily 

 disposed by her hand. In the mean time, the necessities of 

 human life, no less than the objects of science, require that 

 some mode should be adopted which should enable us to di- 

 stinguish plants from each other, and to designate them by their 

 appropriate names, although we may not be able precisely to 

 ascertain their natural connections and relative situations: 

 and for this purpose it became indispensably necessary to have 

 recourse to art ; not to overthrow or oppose nature, but to 

 assist us where she deserted us, to guide our steps till we could 

 again recover her track, and to furnish us with a lamp till we 

 were again illuminated by the beams of day. 



Happily for the world, the formation of such a system was 

 undertaken by the illustrious Swede whose name it bears; and 

 certain it is, that it could not have fallen into abler hands. — 

 With the conviction of the real existence of natural genera and 

 orders, no one was more deeply penetrated ; and to interfere 

 with these relations as little as might be consistent with his pri- 

 mary object of a complete arrangement of the vegetable world, 

 was his constant solicitude. For the creation of this system 



• From the Transactions of the I^innaean Society, for 1810. The renewed 

 interest which the subject has excited, and tlic estimation in whicii the ve- 

 nerahle author is justly held, have induced us, tliough late, to transfer tl;is 

 Paper to the pages of our Journal. — Edit. 



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