164 Natural History. [Chap. III^ 



various, as to create an intricacy in a high degree 

 perplexing and painful to the student. To the method 

 of Ray, succeeded that of Rivinus, a professor of Bo- 

 tany in the university of Leipsic. This learned 

 man was the first who laid aside the distinction be- 

 tween herbs and trees, which had been universally 

 adopted by those who went before him. Relin- 

 quishing also the pursuit of natural affinities, and 

 convinced of the insufficiency of characteristic marks 

 drawn principally from the fruit, he attached him- 

 self to the Jloxvery as furnishing characters abun* 

 dantly numerous, distinguishing, and permanent. 

 He reduced the number of the classes to eighteen, 

 which were distinguished from each other by the 

 perfection and distribution of the Jlozvers, and par- 

 ticularly by the regularity and number of x\\e petals. 

 Rivinus did not live to complete the publication of 

 his system j the whole of which was finally laid be- 

 fore the w^orld in 171 1, by one of his disciples. 



After the system of Rivinus, the next worthy 

 of attention is that of Tournefort. This great bo- 

 tanist set out with reviving the distinction of plants 

 into herbs and trees, which had been exploded by 

 Rivinus. In his method there are twenty-two 

 classes, and one hundred and twenty-two orders, 

 denominated sections: the former founded on the 

 regularity and figure of the petals, together with 

 the situation of the receptacle of the flowers; the 

 latter on the pistillum and calyx. Botanical writers 

 generally speak of Tournefort's as the first re- 

 gular and complete arrangement. He was cer- 

 tainly the first vvlio ascertained and exhibited the 

 genera oi ^\'ca\\.s in a scientific manner ; and, indeed, 

 in general merit as a systematic writer, he went 



