INTRODUCTION. XXI 



doubt. And if two names fail to produce 

 the effect, there is in ancient Botany 

 always another and another. 



Of this part of the ancient Method we 

 retain traces in our modern system. For 

 the practice of Synonymy begat a certain 

 habit of designating plants by two names, 

 which curiously simulates the binomial 

 nomenclature. When in the latter we 

 sometimes find two old synonyms still 

 companying together and even banded 

 for the self-same objects as of old, it re- 

 quires some attention to understand that the 

 internal relation of such couples has under- 

 gone a complete revolution. Examples of 

 this are Arctium Lappa, Tussilago Farfara, 

 Artemisia Absinthium, Hypericum Andro- 

 ssemum, Pyrus Malus. 



On these two pillars then of Compara- 

 tive Description and Synonymy the whole 

 Method rested, and indeed we may go so 

 far as to say that the whole study rested. 



II. For as to Arrangement it had hardly 

 any existence. The vegetable world had 

 indeed been roughly divided from Theo- 

 phrastus downwards into Trees, Shrubs, 



