134 Natural Historij. 



Britain, Blair, Bradley, Fairchild, and Mil- 

 ler, also appeared on the side of Grew's doctrine; 

 but Alston, and some others, long retained their 

 hostility against it with unabating zeal. 



Such was the state of opinion with regard to 

 this doctrine, when Linn^us adopted, unfolded, 

 and made a splendid application of it to botanical 

 science. And although we cannot ascribe to him 

 the original discovery, yet he confirmed, extended, 

 and improved it, and made it the basis of a system 

 which has commanded greater admxiration, and 

 been more generally received than any before of- 

 fered to the world. It will appear evident, on 

 the slightest consideration of the subject, that the 

 task of arrangement, in the vegetable kingdom, 

 is a most perplexing and difficult one; and that 

 every fl!r//y?at7/ classification must involv^e sacrifices 

 of family resemblance, and natural connection. 

 But the philosophers of every country seem to have 

 yielded to Linn.^us the praise of having formed a 

 system, which, in facility, and universality, is su- 

 perior to all hitherto proposed. 



But it was not only in the doctrines and arrange- 

 vierd of botany, but also in the nomenclature of the 

 science, that this distinguished natural historian 

 excelled all his predecessors. He created a new 



tion, was published as early as 1727. Some notice will be taken of this 

 performance hereafter. 



It is also worthy of notice, that James Logan, Esq. a learned and 

 ingenious gentleman of Philadelphia, who was afterwards President of the 

 Council, and Chief Justice of Pennsylvania, instituted a set of experiments 

 on maize, with a particular view to the investigation of the sexual doctrine. 

 An account of these experiments was first communicated in a letter to 

 Peter Collinson, F. R. S. in 1735, and printed in the Philosophical 

 transactions, vol xxxvi. This account was afterwards enlarged, and 

 published in Latin, at Leyden, in 1 739, under the title of Experimenta 

 et Mcletemata, de Plantarum Generatione ; and republished with an English 

 translation, by Dr. Fothergill, in 8vo. 1747. These experiments were 

 considered and appealed to as among the most decisive in establishing the 

 doctrine they were intended to illustrate and confirm. Fulkneys Sketches^ 

 Sic. vol. ii. p. 278. 



