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SECTION I. 



GL.MCKAL VIEW OF THE SYSTEM. 



1. In the History of Botany, we alluded to the neces- 

 sity of a simple and comprehensive arrangement of 

 plants, in which every vegetable production might be 

 classed, with tolerable accuracy and precision. 



Many systems were published by some of the most learned botan- 

 ists, but none have been so -well received or so truly valued, as the 

 excellent arrangement we are now about to consider. 



2. The artificial system of Linnaeus, is founded 

 entirely on the stamens and pistils of the flower, and 

 according to his arrangement, all known plants are dis- 

 tributed into different classes, orders, genera, species, 

 and varieties. 



The stamen is generally considered as the male part of the flower, 

 and the pistil as the female ; the former, because the flowers having 

 stamens only, bear no seed ; and the latter, because they bear seed 

 when the pollen of the stamen has been discharged upon them. 

 With this idea of the sexes of plants,- the Linnsean system, is very 

 commonly called the sexual system. 



3. The classes are the first general division of all 

 vegetables into twenty-four kinds. There are nume- 

 rous plants which have a character common to them all, 

 and the aggregation of these plants as bearing this evi- 

 dent primary distinction, constitutes a class. 



