TO BOTANY. 47 



tions : but of this be seems confident, that no natu- 

 ral system can ever* be framed, without taking in the 

 materials, out of which ho has raised his own : and 

 urges the necessity of admitting artificial systems for 

 convenience, till one truly natural shall appear*. 



By the sexual system, plants are disposed accord* 

 ing to the number, proportion, and situation of the 

 stamina and pistilla: The manner of their distribution 

 will appear in the following chapters. We shall here 

 only speak in general of the divisions of the system. 



The first general division of the whole body of ve- 

 getables is into twenty-four classes : these are again 

 subdivided into orders, the orders into genera, the- 

 genera into species, and- the species into varieties, 

 where there are any w r orthy of note. Of these divi- 

 sions, we shall treat of the three first only in this 

 second part These more immediately respect the 

 theory of the science than the other two, which, 

 though systematic divisions likewise, have, as our au- 

 thor observes a nearer relation to the practice : and 

 it is in these also that the principal improvements in 

 the management of the science are more particularly 

 included. 



As the Classes and Orders of the system will be se- 

 parately treated of in the following chapters, we shall 

 conclude this introductory one with a table exhibit- 

 ing their titles at one view, in the order in which they 

 stand in the system, that the reader may have recourse 

 thereto as he finds occasion. 



* Linnaeus has given Fragntenta methodi naturalis, Frag, 

 ments of the natural method, in which he has made a distribution 

 of plants under various orders, putting together in each, such as 

 appear to have a natural affinity to each other : This, after a 

 long and fruitless search after the natural method, he gives as 

 the result of his own speculation, for the assistance of such as 

 may engage in the same pursuit. See his Classes Plaatarum 

 page 485, aud Puilosophia JSotanica, page 27. 



