ISO Natural History. 



genera into his system; and was universally c6n-' 

 sidered as one of the most successful inquirers and* 

 instructive writers of his time, on this subject. 



Next to the system o^ Boerhaave, the records 

 of botany present us with the method of Chris- 

 tian Knaut, a German, who proposed what 

 was afterwards styled, " the system of Rivinus 

 inverted." This plan was pubhshed in 1716. It 

 embraced seventeen classes, founded on the num- 

 ber of the petals alone; and one hundred and 

 twenty-one orders, distinguished by the fruit. 

 About the same time Christopher Knaut offered 

 to the world a new system, which, in fact, w^as 

 little more than an alteration of Ray*s, without 

 any substantial improvement. He was followed 

 by Dr. Hales, before mentioned, whose cele- 

 brated work on " Vegetable Statics" threw much 

 ]Tght upon the physiology of plants; and indeed 

 entitles him to the honour of being considered the 

 great father of this branch of botanical science. 

 To Hales succeeded Micheli, an Italian, w^hose 

 Nova Genera Plantarum must be ranked among 

 the fundamental w^orks of the age, as it doubt- 

 less formed an important step in the course of 

 reformation and improvement. Contemporary 

 with Knaut, was Magnol, a celebrated profes- 

 sor of botany at IMontpellicr, w^hose system was 

 published in 1720. He divided the vegetable 

 kingdom into fifteen classes, which derived their 

 characters entirely from the calyx ^ and these, ac- 

 cording to him, embraced fifty-iive orders, w^hose 

 liistinguishing characters w^ere taken from the 

 ,/igU7r of the cah/i\ petals Vind seeds; from the dis- 

 position o^ the flowei's s from the number oi petals; 

 and from tlie substance of the fruit. 



Such was the state of botanical philosophy until 

 the year 1735 — confused, intricate, unsettled, and 

 exhibiting little but successive revolutions. And^^. 



