50 MEMOIR OF 



He then resumes his Natural History, which, 

 with the index, occupies four hundred and ninety- 

 nine pages, commencing with the trees of 

 Jamaica. We shall exhibit an analysis of this 

 volume. 



CHAPTER 1. Of trees which bear their flowers and fruit 

 separated. 



2. Of trees bearing dry fruits which are not 



siliquose. 



3. Of trees that have papilionaceous flowers, 



and are siliquose. 



4. Of trees which bear berries, and arc 



umbilicated or caliculated. 



perhaps less disposed to palliate their errors. As far as 

 we have examined, his remarks, however severe, are not 

 unjust." Linnaeus's opinion of him may be formed from the* 

 following observations to Haller: * Who has ever been 

 free from botanical errors ? He is a wise man who can 

 distinguish good from evil ; and that general may be 

 esteemed happy, who conquers and disperses his enemies 

 with the loss of half his own forces. Who is more meri- 

 torious in exotic plants, though not a systematist, than 

 Plukenet ? but who was ever more unprincipled, more of 

 a heretic in botany, or a greater scandal to our science, 

 than either Plukenet or Vaillant ?" The full title of the 

 work mentioned above, is ** Almagest! Botanici Mantissa, 

 Plantarum novissime delectarum ultra Millenarium Nume- 

 rum complectens," 1700, 4to. 



The Herbarium of Plukenet consisted of eight thousand 

 plants, an astonishing number to be collected by a private 

 and not opulent individual. It came, after his death, into 

 the hands of Sir Hans Sloane, and is now in the British 

 Museum Biographical Dictionary by Chalmers, article^ 

 Plukenet. 



