CHAPTER XXIII. 



EXPLANATION OF THE LINN7EAN ARTIFICIAL 

 SYSTEM. 



1 HE Linnaean System is, as I have already observed, 

 professedly artificial. Its sole aim is to help any one to 

 learn the name and history of an unknown plant in the 

 most easy and certain manner, by first determining its 

 Class and Order in this system ; after which its Genus 

 is to be made out by comparing the parts of fructifica- 

 tion with all the generic characters of that Order; and 

 finally its Species, by examining all the specific defini- 

 tions of the Genus. We thus ascertain the generic 

 and specific name of our plant in Linna3us, and under 

 those we find an enumeration, more or less ample, of 

 its Synonyms, or the different appellations it has re- 

 cei,ved from other writers, with a reference to figures 

 in various books ; and as Linnaeus always cites Bauhin's 

 PinaX) which is the common botanical catalogue, or 

 index to all previous works, we thus gain a clue to 

 every thing recorded concerning our plant. Of all this 

 mass of information and entertainment we shall find 

 nothing more concise, luminous, or engaging, either 

 with respect to the distinctions, uses, or history of 

 plants, than what is diffused through the various publi- 

 cations of Linnaeus himself; and the same may, with 



