Vlll PREFACE. 



stems, easy and intelligible ; I conceive nothing 

 more useful can be done than to perfect, upon 

 its own principles, any parts of this system that 

 experience may show to have been originally 

 defective. This is all I presume to do. Specu- 

 lative alterations in an artificial system are end- 

 less, and scarcely answer any more useful purpose 

 than changing the order of letters in an alphabet. 

 The philosophy of botanical arrangement, or the 

 study of the natural affinities of plants, is quite 

 another matter. But it would be as idle, while 

 \ve pursue this last-mentioned subject, so deep 

 and so intricate that its most able cultivators are 

 only learners, to lay aside the continual use of 

 the Linnaean system, as it would be for philolo- 

 gists and logicians to slight the convenience, and 

 indeed necessity, of the alphabet, and to substi- 

 tute the Chinese character in its stead. If the 

 following pages be found to elucidate and to con- 

 firm this comparison, I wish the student to keep 

 it ever in view. 



The illustration of the Linneean system of 

 classification, though essential to my purpose, 

 is however but a small part of my aim. To 

 explain and apply to practice those beautiful 

 principles of method, arrangement and dis- 



