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plant and referring it to its proper station in a system is to be looked 

 upon as the sole end and aim of botanical research ; but why should 

 we not use the easiest means of acquiring the true end ? The vota- 

 ries of the so-called natural method are confessedly obliged to have 

 recourse to artificial schemes, in order to determine the names and 

 stations of the comparatively small number of species indigenous to 

 Britain. We would by no means be understood to wish that Botany 

 should be taught exclusively by the Liunaean method j but so long as 

 artificial systems are required, and it seems that in Britain at least we 

 are not yet able to do without them, we would ask, why not avail 

 ourselves of that which is unquestionably the best of all hitherto 

 devised ? The object of all artificial systems of Botany we appre- 

 hend to be the same, namely, the enabling the student to ascertain 

 with ease and certainty the name of any plant he may meet with ; this 

 step gained, the student is in possession of a clew which will enable 

 him to follow out the subject in its remotest bearings. The Linntean 

 system, used, as its author intended it should be used, as "an index 

 to a great section of the book of Nature," appears to us superior in 

 the grand requisites of applicability and certainty tt) any other artifi- 

 cial scheme with which we are acquainted ; and thus used, the Liu- 

 naean system, as Professor Forbes has well said, will ever be " a most 

 useful auxiliary to the science." After thus stating the true aim and 

 end of the Liunaean system, the Professor continues. — 



" The aim of Jussieu was of a different kind. Gifted with a highly philosophic 

 mind, he concentrated its powers mainly on one subject. His devotion produced <ireat 

 results. He placed the study of the natural affinities of plants on a practical basis, 

 and originated those views afterwards more fully developed by DeCandolle and other 

 distinguished men. The spirit of Jussieu has presided over the greatest botanical 

 works down to the present day, and his influence is as powerful now as when he firet 

 expounded to his delighted pupils just views of the vegetable kingdom. 



" The genius aud doctrines of Linnaeus and Jussieu having placed Botany on a sure 

 scientific basis, hosts of labourers crowded to the field, and the enthusiastic pupils and ad- 

 mirers of those great men went forth observing and collecting over every discovered land. 

 The facts they added demanded new research and modified arrangements. Still the 

 great stage of classijicathm had been attained, aud the science was to enter on the third 

 lera of its existence, that oi philosophical investigation. In that aera we now live. Its 

 characters are — the observation of facts, not so much for their own sakes as for the il- 

 lustrations they afford of the laws of the science; careful experimental inquiries into 

 the phenomena of vegetation, not undertaken as isolated researches, but with a view 

 to their comparison with vital phenomena throughout animated nature ; minute ana- 

 tomical investigation under the microscope, not conducted merely to display new 

 forms of structure, but in the hope of solving, if possible, the problem of the ultimate 

 structure of tissues ; the construction of local floras and publication of local catalogues, 

 not with the limited view of assisting the inhabitants of a province to a knowledge of 



