XXXVl INTEODTJCTION. 



make anyi solid progress towards the at- 

 tainment of the greater. These two ends 

 were a system of verification and a system 

 for purposes of interpretation. The ob- 

 stacle at the threshold was not yet entirely 

 removed. Notwithstanding the triumphant 

 jubilation over the Pinaoc, we still find 

 John Eay in the second half of the seven- 

 teenth century complaining of the diSiculty 

 of ascertaining what plants belong to what 

 names ^. The great botanists one after 

 another, Morison, Ray, Tournefort, were 

 observins: Nature with close attention, in 

 order to detect the key to the secret of 

 natural afiSnities. In his Methodus Plan- 

 tarwn Nova, 1682, Ray made great ad- 

 vances towards an outline of the Natural 

 system. Here was first proposed the dis- 

 tinction between Dicotyledons and Mono- 

 cotyledons. But the enquiry was too partial. 

 AVhile the general importance of the Fruc- 

 tification was acknowledged, the observation 

 was practically rivetted on the blossom and 

 the fruit, to the neglect of other parts and 



1 In the Preface to his Catalogus Plantar um circa 

 Cantabrigiam nascentium, 1669. 



