INTRODUCTION. XIX 



This arrangement brings together, for no other purpose 

 than for convenience of reference, plants dissimilar in 

 structure, habit, and properties. It is, therefore, an Arti- 

 ficial System ; as such Linnaeus proposed it, and such 

 he always professed it to be. "I have never pretended 

 that the method was natural," he says, in his letter to 

 Haller. " A Natural System," he repeatedly remarks, 

 in his other writings, "is the first and last object to be 

 aimed at by botanists. l .... A perfect System of this 

 kind should assemble plants allied in habit, mode of 

 growth, properties, and uses." Of such a system he left 

 a slight sketch ; but the rich store of plants which has 

 been laid open to modern botanists never came within 

 his reach ; it is, therefore, not surprising that, being well 

 aware of his defective materials, he never attempted to 

 fill the sketch in. Make it as complete as he would, 

 in a few years it would have been imperfect and useless. 

 Not so, however, his Artificial System, which, still 

 marked by the limits that he assigned, not only offers 

 facilities for forming an acquaintance with the names of 

 plants, but affords ready means of reference to any 

 System in which plants are arranged according to their 

 natural characters. It is not, therefore, too much to say 

 that the Artificial System of Linnaeus has served a double 

 purpose. Before a Natural Method was arranged, it 

 was the only one that was available ; and now that it is 



hold ;" so in the Class Moncecia, the stamens and pistils may be supposed to 

 occupy separate apartments in one house. Polygamia signifies " many kinds 

 of fructification :" Cryptogamia, " concealed, fructification." A ndria denotes 

 stamens ; gynia, pistils : thus Triandria includes flowers with three stamens . 

 Digynia, flowers with two pistils; and Gynandria, lowers with pistils and 

 stamens united. In the two Orders of the Class Didynamia, the term Gym- 

 nospermia denotes "naked seed ;" the fruit being apparently destitute of 

 a covering. Angiospermia implies that the seeds are enclosed in a "seed- 

 vessel." The terms Siliculosa and Siliquosa are explained in the text. 



(1) Methodi Naturalis fragmenta inquirenda sunt. Primum et ultimum 

 hoc in Botanicis desideratum est. Plantse omnes utrimque affinitatem 

 inonstrant uti territorium in inappa geographica. Lin. Phil. Bot. Aph. 77. 



Methodus Naturalis est ultimus finis Botanicis. Ibid. Aph. 163. 



Naturalis Character ab onmi Botanico teneatur oportet. Ibid. Aph. 191. 



Classes, quo magis naturales, eo, cseteris paribus, prsestantiores sunt. 

 Adfines conveniunt habitu, nascendi modo, proprietatibus, viribus, usu. 

 Summorum Botanicorum hodiernus labor in his sudat, et desudare decet ; 

 methodus Naturalis nine ultimus finis Botanicis est et erit. fbid. Aph. 206. 



