RAY. 41 



the system of contemporary botanists, made no 

 part of that of Ray. It is remarkable that he 

 adopts the ancient primary division of plants into 

 trees, shrubs, and herbs, and that he blamed 

 Rivinus, one of his fellow-labourers, for abolishing 

 it, though his own prefatory remarks tend to 

 overset that principle, as a vulgar and casual one, 

 unworthy of a philosopher. That his system was 

 not merely a commodious artificial aid to practical 

 botany, but a philosophical clue to a correct 

 natural classification, he probably, like his fellow- 

 labourers for many years in this department, 

 believed, yet he was too modest and too learned to 

 think he had brought the new and arduous design 

 to perfection. For whatever he has incidentally or 

 deliberately thrown out respecting the value of his 

 labours, is often marked with more diffidence on 

 the subject of classification than any other, 

 great service that Ray did to^bolanyjaraajthe 

 shadowing the so-called natural system of classifi- 

 cation, which was to supersede the artiHcial system 

 "oPLinnaeus, which will be described in a future 

 page. He first applied his system to practical use 

 in a general " History of Plants," of which the first 

 volume, a thick folio, was published in 1686, and the 

 second in 1687. The third volume of the same work, 

 which is supplementary, came out in 1704. This 

 vast and critical compilation is still in use^^ a 

 book of reference, being particularly valuable as an 

 epitome of the contents of various rare and expen- 

 sive works, which ordinary libraries^cannot^ossess. 



ince on . 

 [lejbre- \ 



