AIT 



INTRODUCTION 



TO 



O T A N Y. 



PART THE SECOND. 



CHAP. I. 

 OF THE SEXUAL SYSTEM, AND ITS DIVISIONS. 



THE Sexual System was invented by Linnaeus, 

 professor of physic and botany at Upsal. It is found- 

 ed on the parts of fructification described in the for- 

 mer part of this work : These having been observed 

 with more accuracy, since the discovery of the uses 

 for which nature has assigned them, a new set of prin- 

 ciples has been derived from them ; by means of 

 which the distribution of plants has been brought to 

 greater precision, and rendered more conformable to 

 true philosophy in this System, than in any one of 

 those which preceded it. The author of it does not 

 pretend to call it a natural one ; he gives it as arti- 

 ficial only, and modestly owns his inability to detect 

 the order pursued by nature in her vegetable produc- 



