Natural History. 13t 



^i\\y services which he rendered to this science. 

 His researches and publications excited a gene- 

 ral thirst for this kind of knowledge. From the 

 school which he formed, many distinguished cha- 

 racters arose, wIk> did honour to their instructor, 

 and who greatly extended and improved his sys- 

 tem. A number of these, incited by the zeal 

 and the example of this patriarch in science, un- 

 dertook distant voyages, and tedious and hazar- 

 dous journies, for the sake of exploring such re- 

 gions of the earth as were before unknown; and 

 thus daily brought home new stores of know- 

 ledge from every quarter of the earth. 



Since the publication of the Sexual System, se- 

 veral new methods of classification have been pro- 

 posed, and still more numerous plans suggested 

 for modifying and improving that of Linnjeus. 

 Among the most respectable of these may be 

 mentioned the natural method of Van Royen, 

 Professor at Leyden, exhibited in his Prodromus 

 Flone Leydenensis, published in 1740, and which 

 isustained a high character among botanists, for in- 

 genuity and elegance. The next is that of Baroa 

 Haller, one of the greatest men of the age in 

 which he lived. He proposed, in 1742, a new 

 natural system, founded on an assemblage of the 

 various characters chosen by others. The bota- 

 nical works of this philosopher rank in the very 

 first class. He was a warm opponent of Linnaeus, 

 and sometimes, in this scientific warfare, departed 

 from that mildness and urbanity which he owed 

 both to himself and his adversary.' After Haller, 

 Bernard de Jussieu, of France, published a new 

 method of classification, also a natural one. To 

 him succeeded his countryman La Marck, the 

 author of the botanical part of the Encydopcedie 



* Tracts on Natural History y by Jam 53 Ed WARD Smith. 

 T 



