Book I. THE STUDY OF SYSTEMATIC BQTANY. 209 



struck with this Inconvenience, proposed that the names of plants should henceforth consist of two words 

 only, the one the generic or family name, and the other the specific or individual name. 



1270. The names qf classes and orders were originally primitive, or without meaning, as the Grasses 

 of Tragus, Poppies of Bnuhin, &:c. ; and afterwards so compounded as to be long and complex, as the 

 Polloplostemonopetal^, Eleutkeromacrastemones, &c. of Wachendorf. LihnBDUs decided, that the names 

 of classes and orders should consist of a single word, and that word not simple or primitive, but expressive 

 of a certain character or characters, found in all the plants which compose it. 



1271. In applying names to plants, three rules are laid down by botanists : 1st. That the languages chosen 

 should be fixed and universal, as the Greek and Latin. 2d. That these languages should be used accord- 

 ing to the general laws of grammar, and compound words always composed from the same language, and. 

 not of entire words, &c. 3d. That the first who discovers a being, and enregisters it in the catalogue of 

 nature, has the right of giving it a name ; and that that name ought to be received and admitted by 

 naturalists, unless it belong to a being already existing, or transgress the rules of nomenclature. Every 

 one that discovers a new plant may not be able to enregister it according to these laws, and in that case 

 has no right to give it his name ; but the botanist who enregisters it, and who is in truth the discoverer, 

 may give it the name of the finder, if he chooses. 



1272. The whole vegetable kingdom is divided into classes, orders, genera, species, and varieties. A class . 

 is distinguished by some character which is common to many plants ; an order is distinguished by having 

 some character limited to a few plants belonging to a class ; a still more limited coincidence constitutes a 

 genus J and each individual of a genus, which continues unchanged when raised from seed, is called a spe- 

 cies. A variety is formed by an accidental deviation from the specific character, and easily returns by 

 seed to the particular species from which it arose. 



1273. For the purposes of recording and communicating botanical knowledge, plants are described, and this 

 is done either by the use of language alone, or by language and figures, models or dried plants, conjoined. 

 The description of plants may be either abridged or complete. The shortest mode of abridgment is that 

 employed in botanical catalogues, as in those of Donn or of Sweet. The most exact descriptions are 

 deficient without figures or an herbarium. Hence the advantage of being able to see plants at pleasure, by 

 forming dried collections of them. The greater part of plants dry with facility between the leaves of 

 books, or other paper, the smoother the better. If there be plenty of paper, they often dry best without 

 shifting ; but if the specimens are crowded, they must be taken out frequently, and the paper dried before 

 they are replaced. 



1274. The language of botany may be acquired by two methods, analogous to those by which common 

 languages are acquired. The first is the natural method, which begins with the great and obvious classes 

 of vegetables, and distinguishes trees, grasses, &c. ; next individuals among these, and afterwards their 

 parts or organs. This knowledge is acquired insensibly, as we acquire our native tongue. The 

 second is the artificial method, and begins with the parts of plants, as the leaves, roots, &c. ascending to 

 nomenclature and classification, and is acquired by particular study, aided by books or instructors, as one 

 acquires a dead or foreign language. This method is the fittest for such as wish to attain a thorough 

 knowledge of plants, so as to be able to describe them ; the other mode is easier, and the best suited for 

 cultivators, whose object does not go beyond that of understanding their descriptions, and studying their 

 physiology, history, and application. A very good method for a person at a distance from botanists, is to 

 form a collection of dried specimens of all the plants which he wishes to know the names of, and to send 

 them to the curator of the nearest botanic garden, requesting him to write the name below each speci- 

 men, and refer to some work easily procured, such as "Withering or Gray's Arrangement of British 

 Plants, in which is given its description, uses, history, &c. Smith's Introduction, and the Elements 

 of DecandoUe and Sprengel, may be referred to as the best works on phytography and nomenclature. 



1275. Taxonomy, or the classification of plants, is the last part of the study-f techno- 

 Icical botany. It is very evident, that, without some arrangement, the mind of man 

 would be unequal to the task of acquiring even an imperfect knowledge of the various 

 objects of nature. Accordingly, in every science, attempts have been made to classify 

 the different objects that it embraces, and these attempts have been founded on various 

 principles. Some have adopted artificial characters ; others have endeavoured to detect 

 the natural relations of the beings to be arranged , and thus to ascertain a connection by 

 which the whole may be associated. In the progress of zoology and physiology, the fun- 

 damental organs on which, to found a systematic arrangement have been finally agreed on. 

 In both, those which are essential, and which discover the greatest variety, form the 

 basis of classification. Animals are found to differ most from each other in the organs of 

 nutrition, and plants in the organs of reproduction. 



1276. Two kinds of methods of arranging vegetables have been distinguished by botanists, the natural 

 and the artificial. A natural method is that, which, in its distribution, retains all the natural classes ; 

 that is such into which no plants enter that are not connected by numerous relations, or that can be dis- 

 joined without doing a manifest violence to nature. An artificial method is that whose classes are not 

 natural because they collect together several genera of plants which are not connected by numerous 

 relations although they agree in the characteristic mark or marks, assigned to that particular class or 

 assemblage to which they belong. An artificial method is easier than the natural, as in the latter it 

 is nature in the former the writer, who prescribes to plants the rules and order to be observed in their 

 distribution. Hence, likewise, as nature is ever uniform, there can be only one natural method ; whereas 

 artificial methods may be multiplied almost ad infinitum, according to the several different relations 

 under which bodies are viewed. ^., , ^ . 



1277 The object of the natural method is to promote our knowledge of the vegetable kmgdom by gener- 

 alizing facts and ideas ; the object of the artificial method is to facilitate the knowledge of plants as indi- 

 vidual objects The merits of the former method consist in the perfection with which plants are grouped 

 together in natural families or orders, and these families grouped among themselves ; the merits of the 

 latter consist in the perfection with which they are arranged according to certain marks by which 

 their names may be discovered. Plants arranged according to the natural method may be compared to 

 words arranged according to their roots or derivations ; arranged according to an artificial method they 

 may be compared to words in a dictionary. The success attending attempts at botanical arrangement, 

 both naturally and artificially, has been singularly striking. Linnaeus has given the most beautiful artifi- 

 cial system that has ever been bestowed by genius on mankind; and Jussieu ha.s, with unrivalled ability, 

 exhibited the natural affinities of the vegetable kingdom. For the study of this department we refer to 

 the works of Smith, DecandoUe, and Gray, already mentioned. 



