MEMOIR OF RAY. 45 



This arrangement is, to a considerable extent, con- 

 formable to that of Caesalpinus, published in 1583, 

 who was the first to avail himself of Gesner's judicious 

 suggestion to arrange vegetables by means of their 

 fructification. But while the peculiarities of the fruit 

 were continually kept in view, and may be said to 

 form the basis of his method, Ray perceived the 

 propriety of seeking for distinctive characters in the 

 other parts of a plant, in consequence of which he 

 has made a nearer approach to a natural arrange- 

 ment than any preceding systematist. He has cer- 

 tainly surpassed his predecessor Morison, a native 

 of Aberdeen, and professor of botany at Oxford, 

 whose system was first published at Paris in 1669, 

 and which is greatly more complex than that of 

 Caesalpinus, without being more useful in the ex- 

 trication of natural affinities. It will be perceived 

 that Ray adopts the ancient primary division of 

 plants into trees, shrubs, and herbs ; although, as 

 Sir J. E. Smith observes, his own prefatory remarks 

 tend to overset that principle, as a vulgar and casual 

 one, unworthy of a philosopher. To this supposed 

 fundamental distinction, however, he continued to 

 adhere, but he soon rectified many of the other 

 errors of his first arrangement, such as the sepa- 

 ration of the cereale grasses from their obvious as- 

 sociates, in an improved method subsequently pub- 

 lished. This arrangement, which contains his most 

 matured views on the subject, consists of thirty-four 

 classes, distributed as follows : 



