36 GENERAL DIVISION [LECT, I* 



when the various subjects which each has particu- 

 larly treated of come to be noticed. 



By making ourselves acquainted with the 

 structure and functions of vegetables, we are pre- 

 pared to examine them as parts of a system ; and 

 thereby become acquainted, as it were, with each 

 individual of this extensive kingdom of Nature. 



The astonishing diversity of form and colour 

 with which Nature lias clothed the members of the 

 vegetable kingdom, required that some mode 

 should be devised for distinguishing the different 

 kinds of plants. What is termed the natural me- 

 thod seems, at first sight, the most easy, and the 

 best ; and certainly, if it could be rendered per- 

 fect, it would undoubtedly be so ; for, in many of 

 the families of plants, such as the Grasses, Ferns, 

 Lilies, Roses, &c. there is such a natural affinity 

 between the different species of each class, and so 

 marked a distinction of the classes, as not to be 

 mistaken ; but this is not the case throughout the 

 vegetable kingdom ; and, even in some of those 

 natural classes which I have named, species are 

 found which render it exceedingly difficult to 

 know in which natural class they should be placed. 

 Many Botanists, however, have endeavoured to 

 produce systems of arrangement, according to 

 these natural affinities; but hitherto they have not 

 succeeded, not even excepting Jussieu, whose 

 very learned and valuable work is far from an- 



