382 CORRESPONDENCE OF RAY. 



classing the plants by their similitude in flowers, and 

 distinguishing them into several genuses by their seeds 

 and seed-vessels, not knowing whether the method would 

 take or not : but it is no more than the other method 

 inverted ; and since he has once published it, he is obliged 

 to maintain and defend it, whatever inconsistencies there 

 may be in it. Tournefort, indeed, is a most indefatigable 

 and nice observer of nature, but I do not think that 

 either his method is to be accounted the best or only 

 infallible ; for it may be made appear that his method is 

 as liable to objections, and he as subject to mistakes, as 

 others. We are certainly obliged to the writings of those 

 learned men, and every one of them deserveth just praises, 

 but I think it may be done without detracting from the 

 merit of others. I confess I judge it a very difficult 

 matter to lay down such principles of method as will 

 comprehend even the species of plants already known, 

 and far less those that are yet undiscovered, or that will 

 not be subject to change or admit of alteration ; for I 

 find, by the few observations that I made this year, that 

 a plant must be viewed in all the seasons of it before one 

 can venture to give a true and exact character of it : and 

 it is not one single observation that is sufficient to con- 

 stitute the character of a plant, for that may escape our 

 sight or memory at one time which we may discover at 

 another. Besides, a plant appears under several disguises 

 or shapes before its fruit come to maturity, therefore it 

 must be from repeated observations in all the seasons of 

 it ; for 1 have found, that after having viewed a plant 

 with ah 1 the niceness and exactness imaginable at one 

 season, yet on a second review I have been obliged to 

 alter my thoughts ; for instance, in the Herniaria. 

 Neither is it to be thought that botany alone is come to 

 that height of perfection as to need no help or correction, 

 or that it is less capable of improvement than other 

 sciences are ; for how many new species have been dis- 

 covered of late years both in East and West Indies never 



