BOTANY. 461 



those of many pieces, polypetalous. The whole were divided into 

 twenty-two classes. At this period little beyond ten thousand 

 plants were known, which were distributed in about seven hun- 

 dred genera. 



The next great systematic writer that appeared was the cele- 

 brated Linnaeus. He was born in Sweden in 1707 ; and his 

 system of botany and other writings were successively pub- 

 lished from 1737 to 1777. This great naturalist, from finding the 

 reproduction of plants connected with organs analogous to the 

 sexual organs in other organized beings, founded his arrange- 

 ment of vegetables chiefly upon the number and position of these 

 organs, and hence his method has been termed the sexual sys- 

 tem. This system, confessedly artificial, since it brings toge- 

 ther in some groups many otherwise discordant species, was ne- 

 vertheless admirably calculated to facilitate the knowledge of 

 plants in the simplest manner; and from the publication of 

 the Genera and Species Plantarum of Linnaeus, may be dated 

 the establishment of the science of botany on fixed and phi- 

 losophical principles. Linnaeus divides vegetables into twen- 

 ty-four classes, according to the number, the insertion, the re- 

 spective length, the union or separation of the stamina. The 

 last class, called Cryptogamia, comprehends plants which have 

 no perceptible flowers, as mushrooms, ferns, algae, &c. In all 

 the other classes the flowers or organs of fructification are per- 

 ceptible. In the greater number of the classes, the flowers con- 

 tain male organs or stamina, and female ones, or styles, on 

 the same flower. These are termed hermaphrodites; others 

 have the stamina and styles separate. The last three classes 

 but one have the flowers thus disposed, and are hence named 

 unisexual. In some the stamina and styles are placed on dif- 

 ferent flowers on the same stem, (Moncecia) ; in others, sta- 

 mens and pistils are found on separate plants, (Dicecia). And 

 another modification is, when stamens and pistils are found se- 

 parate and conjoined on the same plant, (Polygamia). But 

 the nature of the arrangement will be best understood from an 

 exposition of the characters of the different classes. 



Linnaeus, as before noticed, divides the vegetable kingdom in- 

 to twenty-four classes, and forms for each of these a compound 

 term derived from the Greek, which indicates their essential cha- 

 racter. Thus, for the first thirteen classes, he gives to the Greek 



