INTRODUCTION. xlvii 



perfected by Linnaeus has wonderfully 

 helped the mind of man to domesticate 

 the wild infinity of Nature. There is a 

 great historical interest about the pro- 

 cesses which led to such a result, and the 

 wanderings are hardly less interesting than 

 the discovery of the right path. The 

 solution consisted in the organisation of a 

 System in which every name is defined and 

 restricted to its proper object by its relative 

 place in the compact and reasoned arrange- 

 ment of the whole. By this means the old 

 tumult of names has been regimented and 

 brought into such perfect discipline, that 

 every name is kept to its own place in the 

 universal subordination. No name is now 

 absolute, every name is relative^ and has 

 its own proper place in a scheme which 

 for all practical purposes is coextensive 

 with the vegetable world ; so that a plant- 

 name cannot wander out of the ranks any 

 more than a runaway soldier could elude 

 observation in the ancient Empire of the 

 Caesars. 



