164 LINNJEAN SYSTEM. 



and delight you very much, when you are suf- 

 ficiently acquainted with the structure of plants to 

 understand them. 



My reasons for having chosen the system of Lin- 

 naeus, in preference to any other, were, that it 

 is used in England very generally ; and that it will 

 enable you to find out the genera and species of 

 plants with greater ease and certainty than any 

 other, which is all that I propose to instruct you 

 in at present. The Natural orders, in short, are 

 the best to teach the structure of pi ants: the Ar- 

 tificial orders, serve to distinguish one plant from 

 another, or to find their places in the arrangement. 

 Linnaeus himself, indeed, allows, in his Gen'era 

 Planta'rum, that his artificial method is of use only 

 to ascertain plants. 



EDWARD. 



But have not a great many plants been found 

 since Linnaeus's time ? 



MOTHER. 



Botanists are constantly discovering new spe- 

 cies ; and travellers seldom visit distant countries, 

 without bringing home even new genera. Sir 

 Joseph Banks found nearly a thousand species, 

 during the voyage in which New South Wales was 

 discovered ; and Mr. Brown a celebrated botanist, 

 who went out with Captain Flinders, on a voyage 

 of discovery to New Holland, in the year 1801, 



