Sect. II.] Botany. I7I 



original discovery, yet he confirmed, extended, and 

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

 has commanded greater admiration and been more 

 generally received than any before oiTered to the 

 world. It will appear evident, on the slightest con- 

 sideration of the subject, that the task of arrange- 

 ment, in the vegetable kingdom, is a very per- 

 plexing and (liflicult one; and that every artificial 

 classification must involve sacrifices of family re- 

 semblance, and natural connexion. But the phi- 

 losophers of every country seem to have yielded to 

 Linnaeus the praise of having formed a system, on 

 the w^hole, superior to all hitherto proposed. 



But it was not only in the doctrines and arrani^e- 

 vient of botany, but also in the nomenclature of the 

 science, that this distinguished natural historian 

 excelled all his predecessors. He created a new 

 language, so simple, methodical, and convenient, 

 that it has been pronounced likely to stand the test 

 of ages, even if his sexual opinions should be dis- 

 carded. In forming this language, he retained all 

 the old names, which were consistent with his new- 

 principles ; he adopted such others from the Greek 

 and Latin, as were short, expressive, and sono- 

 rous; he dismissed the periphrastic and tedious de- 

 scriptions of the former schools; he introduced tri- 

 vial names, by which one, or at most two adjec- 

 tives, distinguish a plant from all its other relative 

 species*; in a word, he formed a language so sim- 



* The following will serve as a specimen oi the convenience 

 and utility of the trivial names invented and applied by Linn.xus. 

 A kind of Grass, before his time, was called Gravun Xcrampcli' 

 num, Miliacca, prdtcnuis ramusaque sparsa panicida; sive Xerampc- 

 lino congener, nrvcnsc, astivum ; irravien minutissimo scmine. I Ic gave 

 it a name consisting of two words, Poabulbosuj which designated 



