TO BOTANY. 



CIRRHIFEROUS, such as bear cirrhi ; as in Car- 

 diospermum and Vitis. 



SUPRA-AXILLARY, such as come out above the 

 wings , as in the Asperifoliae, and in Poteritilla mon- 

 speliensis. 



CHAP. XXII. 

 OF SPECIFIC DISTINCTIONS, 



WE have treated of generic differences in the five 

 last chapters of the second part of this work ; we 

 come now to treat of the Specific ones. For this a 

 foundation . has been laid in the preceding chapters 

 of this third part, by the explanation of those parts 

 of the vegetable on which the difference of the spe- 

 cies most commonly depends , but it is necessary to 

 observe, that the fructification which we treated of 

 in the first part, as preparatory to the distinctions of 

 the classes and genera, has its influence likewise in 

 many cases upon the species, as will appear in the 

 course of this chapter. , 



Generic differences we have shewn to depend on 

 the form of the fructification, and to be confined to 

 that alone : specific differences take their rise from 

 any circumstance wherein plants of the same genus 

 are found to disagree , provided such circumstance is 

 constant, and not liable to alteration by culture or 

 other accidents. Hence Linnaeus asserts the species 

 to be as many as there were different forms of vege- 

 tables produced at the creation , and considers all 

 casual differences as varieties of the same species. 



Towards the end of the last century, the desire of 

 increasing the number of plants had so seized the 

 botanists of that time, that new species were establish- 

 ed on too slight differences, to the great detriment 



