x PREFACE. 



characters in any book of Botany, without the greater part of this 

 kind of inquiry being gone through. 



In the determination of genera, however, facility is entirely on 

 the side of the Natural System. Jussicu has well remarked "that 

 whatever trouble is experienced in remembering, or applying the 

 characters of Natural Orders, is more than compensated for by the 

 facility of determining genera, the characters of which are simple 

 in proportion as those of Orders are complicated. The reverse 

 takes place in arbitrary arrangements, where the distinctions of 

 classes and sections arc extremely simple and easy to remember, 

 while those of genera are in proportion numerous and complicated." 



But really all considerations of difficulty ought to be put aside 

 when it is remembered how much more satisfactory are the results 

 to which we are brought by the study of Nature philosophically, 

 than those which can possibly be derived from the most ingenious 

 empirical mode of investigation. 



Such were the motives Avhich led to the publication, in 1830, of 

 the first edition of the present work, under the name of an Intro- 

 duction to the Natural System of Botany . No one would have more 

 readily than the Author transferred the labour to another hand, if 

 any other had been found. Indeed, he confesses that it was because 

 the most capable of those whom he knew belonged to the class of 

 men described by Lord Bacon, who " object too much, consult too 

 long, adventure too little, repent too soon, and seldom drive busi- 

 ness home," that he undertook a task for which no man's abilities 

 are in reality high enough. He could not but feel that: "To 

 think nothing done while anything remains to be done is a 

 good rule for perseverance, but to think that nothing shoidd 

 be done while a main thing remains undone, woidd be a most 

 idle and thriftless maxim. If there be a good presently practi- 

 cable, it may be done without any desertion of another good 

 not so immediately attainable. And in effecting all secondary 

 amendments, we have the satisfaction of feeling assured that 

 there is a link between all real improvements, and that every 

 sound reform is a step to others, though the connexion may not be 

 broadly distinguishable." 



The Introduction to the Natural System was originally writ- 

 ten in illustration of the popular system of Dc Candolle ; but 

 daily experience showed the insufficiency of that system, and the 

 necessity of forming sub-divisions of the primary groups of plants 

 higher than their so-called Natural Orders became so apparent, as 



