334 VALUE OF NATURAL SYSTEM. 



to attain it, the Botanist requires to become acquainted, not 

 only with all the tribes of Vegetables at present existing on the 

 surface of the globe, but with the forms and characters of those 

 which have once existed ; since it cannot be doubted all 

 these constituted parts of the one general scheme, without the 

 knowledge of which it would be impossible to reconstruct it. 

 Now it is well known to the Botanist, that a very large number 

 of the species of Plants with which he is somewhat acquainted, 

 have been so imperfectly examined and described, that their true 

 place in the system cannot be determined ; and there is good 

 reason to believe that there are many more of which he is 

 totally ignorant. Here, therefore, are abundant causes for the 

 imperfection of any natural system which can be at present 

 framed ; and should these ever be removed by long-continued 

 labour and research, there will yet remain the other causes, re- 

 sulting from the impossibility of becoming fully acquainted with 

 the characters of the races, which have existed in former periods 

 of the earth's history, and which have been swept completely 

 from its face. Of these, some remains are occasionally disco- 

 vered, sufficiently perfect to excite the liveliest interest and 

 curiosity, by showing that races once flourished, -which fill up 

 many of the wide gaps existing between those with whose cha- 

 racters we are now familiar, and which, if we knew more of 

 them, would explain many things that are at present most 

 perplexing. 



488. Some of the strongest upholders of the Linnaean system 

 are influenced by their veneration for its author ; whose fame, 

 however, will rest on a foundation much more durable than this. 

 It is not generally known that the advantages of the Natural 

 method have never been more highly appreciated, than they were 

 by Linnaeus himself. "When he framed an Artificial system for 

 the convenient arrangement of plants, it was with the very pur- 

 pose for which the temporary employment of it has been here 

 recommended, namely, to facilitate that acquaintance with the 

 Vegetable Kingdom, which must be gained before a Natural 

 method can be framed. Linnaeus himself gave a sketch of the 

 Natural System, explaining the principles upon which it might 

 be expected to rest ; and he pronounced the investigation of the 



