129 AN INTRODUCTION 



5. GRAMINA, Grasses* ; which have simple 

 leaves, a jointed culm or stem, a glumose calyx, and 

 a single seed. 



6. PALM A E, Palms; which have simple stems 

 that are frondosef at the summit, and have their 

 fructification on a spadix issuing from a spatha. 



7. PL-ANTS, which include all that do not enter 

 into any of the other divisions. These are 



. Herbaceous, when they die down to the root every 

 year ; for in the perennial kinds, \he buds are all 

 produced on the root below the surface of the ground. 



Shrubs, when their stems come up without buds J. 



Trees, when their stems come up with buds. 



Vegetables, are each primarily divisible into, 1. 

 The root. 2. The herb or plant itself. 3. The fructi- 

 fication. Of these the last has been already treated 

 of in the first book : The two others upon which the 

 specific differences of vegetables more immediately 

 depend, come now under consideration, and will be 

 the subject matter of the ensuing chapters . 



* This tribe includes the various sorts of corn as well as 

 the grasses. 



i See the term Frons, explained in chap. 4. 



j: Nature has put no limits between a tree and a shrub, 

 which is only a vulgar distinction. This Linnaeus acknow- 

 ledges ; and argues, that his own distinction, though he thinks 

 it the best, is nevertheless exceptionable; inasmuch as there 

 are seldom any buds upon the large trees in India ; all which 

 must therefore by this definition, notwithstanding their great 

 height, be ranked with shrubs. 



It may not be improper here to obviate an objection that 

 may be made to the method pursued in this work. It may 

 be asked, If the matter of this third Part would not have 

 stood more properly in the iirst. In answer to this it is ad- 

 initted, that the order of nature would thereby have been 

 more directly followed: but the design of this work was not 

 so much to follow the order of nature, as to explain the sys, 

 tern of Linnaeus; and as tho classes, orders and genera, which 

 <:ome first in the system, are grounded on the fructification, the 

 beginning with that part of the vegetable was indispcnsibly 

 necessary. 



