Additional Notes. 42? 



and vigour of mind, and an elegance of taste, highly honourable 

 to the author. Dr, Barton adopts the scnial system, and a great 

 part oi the Linnaean nomenclature ; but is by no means a servile 

 follower of that illustrious naturalist. He thinks tlie sexual sy- 

 stem would sutler no injury by the total abolition of the ilvvcnth 

 class (Dodcc(uulvia) ; and though he dissents from the i)r<)- 

 posed alteration by Thunberg, yet he thinks, with Dr. J. E. 

 Smith, that the tivcntij-third Linnnean class (Polj/s^cunia) is unnatu- 

 ral, variable, and obscure, and ought to be entirely suppressed. 



Of the thirti/ plaits which accompany this work, twenty-eight 

 have claims to more or less originality, and many of them arc 

 completely original. They are well executed j and most of the 

 subjects selected for delineation arc remarkable for their rarity, 

 their beauty, or some other peculiarity of character. Every part 

 of this work discovers that the author has not been contented 

 with compiling the facts and opinions of his predecessors, but 

 that he has accurately observed and thought for himself Ha 

 will, therefore, no doubt, be pronounced, by the best judges, to 

 have presehted his countrymen witli the most comprehensive, 

 instructive, and satisfactory work of this kind in the English 

 language f. ■ 



Note (CC), p. 18/. — Among the numerous and important 

 services rendered to botanical science, by means of accurate and 

 elegant drawings, and other moiles of exhibiting plants, the fol- 

 lowing more partiouUirly deserve notice. 



It is a singular fact that physic is indebted for the most com- 

 plete set r^ 'Ayilres of the medicinal plants to the genius and in- 

 <iustry of Mrs. .'"v*.zabet"h Blackwell, a native of Scotland, who, 

 in 1739, published a splendid work under the following title — A 

 curious Herbaly containing five hundred Cuts of the most useful 

 Plants uhich are now used in the Practice of Physic, em^ravcd on 

 Folio Copperplates^ after Drnivings taken from the Life, 2 vols, 

 folio. This ingenious lady, afler she had comj)k'ted die draw- 

 ings, engraved them on copper, and coloured the prints with her 

 own Iiands. It ought to be mentioned, to the honour of Mrs. 

 Elackwell, that she undertook and went through this ingenious 

 labour for the purpose of procuring her husband'^ liberation tVoni 

 prison, where he was confined for debt, and from which she 

 extricated him in two years. — Pultoney's Sketches. 



* I'his work has becQ republished in London, in an improved form. 



