175 Natural History. [Chap. III. 



pie and luminous, and so adjusted its several parts 

 to his improved doctrines, that the acquisition of 

 tlie science of botany became a far more easy task 

 than before. In fact, this was so much the case, 

 that, instead of remaining an abstruse study, con- 

 Ihied to the schools, as formerly, it was converted 

 into an agreeable amusement to persons of leisure 

 in all ranks and situations. 



The new classification and nomenclature of Lin- 

 naeus soon attracted general attention. At first, 

 as might have been expected, they met with pow- 

 erful opposition. When they first made their ap- 

 pearance in Great Britain, Sloane, Dillenius, and 

 other English naturalists, opposed them with 

 warmth. Alston, of Scotland, retaining his old 

 prejudices, did the same; insomuch that the influ- 

 ence of the doctrines taught by Ray threatened, 

 for some time, to triumph over those delivered by 

 Linnasus. This opposition, however, soon, began 

 to decline. As the works of the illustrious philo- 

 sopher of Upsal increased in number and circula- 

 tion, the weight and superiority of his opinions 

 were gradually manifested, until, at length, the pub- 

 he adoption of the Linnaean system by professor 

 Martyn of Cambridge, and professor Hope of 

 Edinburgh; the adaptation of Ray's Flora Angli- 

 cana to this arrangement, by Hudson, about the 

 year 1760; and, fnially, the favourable reception 

 given to the Swedish doctrines by the College of 

 Physicians of London ; completed the establishment 

 of the Sexual System in Great Britain. 



the plant more distinctly and intelligibly than the long and per- 

 plexing description before used. — Stoever's Life ofLinnaus, p. 201 . 



