PREFACE. 



A HOUGH the study of Botany is of late years be- 

 come a very general amusement in this country, 

 there has yet appeared no work in our own lan- 

 guage, that professedly treats of the elements of that 

 science ; it is therefore hoped, that what is now of- 

 fered to the Public, if it shall appear to have been 

 carefully executed, will be considered as a perfor- 

 mance of some utility. The matter it contains, or 

 at least the far greater part of it, will probably be 

 new to the English reader, for though some few 

 explanations of the same kind may be found inter- 

 spersed in larger works, these are for the most part 

 too costly to fall into many hands ; nor could the 

 reader expect to find therein the whole of what he 

 seeks, the explaining the theory of the science not 

 having been the immediate object of those publica- 

 tions. 



The matter of the following sheets has been col- 

 lected from the works of the celebrated Dr. Linnaeus ; 

 whose labours for the reformation of this science in 

 general, and whose invention of the sexual system in 

 particular, are well known. As the writings of this 

 learned professor are interspersed with philosophical 

 and critical remarks that are of less general use, it 

 was thought that a direct translation of any of his 

 works would not be so well received, as what is now 

 given ; which contains an extract of his most material 



doctrine?- 



