NATURAL SYSTEM OF BOTANY. 



WE have already stated that there are two methods of ar- 

 ranging plants, called the Artificial, and the Natural. It is 

 the chief design of this work to give the learner a competent 

 knowledge of the former method, but as the latter is often re- 

 ferred to in books, and is withal of the highest importance to 

 the scientific botanist, we here propose to give a short view 

 of Professor Lindley's Natural Method. 



" The notion," says this author, " of classing species ac- 

 cording to the likeness they bear to each other, which is the 

 foundation of the Natural System, must have originated with 

 the first attempts of man to reduce natural history to a science. 

 The first writers who acknowledged any system, departed in 

 no degree from what they considered a classification of 

 plants, according to their general resemblances. Theophras- 

 tus has his water plants, and parasites, pot-herbs, corn-plants, 

 and forest trees. Dioscorides had his aromatics, his gum bear- 

 ing plants, eatable vegetables, and corn herbs, and the succes- 

 sors, imitators, and copyers of these writers retained the 

 same arrangement for many ages." 



The great distinction between the Artificial and Natural 

 Systems, is readily understood, and may, indeed, be inferred 

 from the above remarks. By the first, plants are arranged 

 in conformity to the number, appearance, or situation of some 

 particular organs, or parts, without reference to their proper- 

 ties, or qualities. By the other, they are distributed, accord- 

 ing to their natural affinities, or qualities. Thus by the 

 Linnaean system, where the arrangement depends on the 

 number and position of the stamens and pistils, there are often 

 thrown into the same group, plants of the most discordant 

 appearances, nature and habits. Thus in the class Pentan- 

 dria and order Monogynia, we have arranged in the same 

 group, all such plants as have five distinct stamens, and one 

 style; and when we come to examine the characters of the 

 plants so brought together, we find that, with the exception of 

 the number and situation of the organs on which their classi- 

 fication depended, there is often the greatest possible discor- 

 dance, and in many instances not a single point of affinity, 



