B O T A N Y. 



13 



Hiitory. of distinction being this, that in the former, the leaves 

 are rougli, and disposed alternately or irregularly on 

 the stem, as in comfrey, and borage, and, in the 

 latter, they are placed opposite by pairs, while the 

 i!,nv(.TS are, at the same time, for the most part in 

 whorls, as in sage, and rosemary ; the fifteenth, of 

 such as have more than four naked seeds, as crow- 

 foot, and cinquefoil ; the sixteenth and seventeenth, 

 of such as have a pulpy fruit, or seed vessel, the fruit 

 in the one case resembling an apple, as in melon, and 

 in the other, a berry, as in night-shade, and briony ; 

 the eighteenth, of such as have many distinct capsules, 

 or dry seed vessels, as houscleek, prcony, and helle- 

 bore ; the nineteenth and twentieth, of such as have 

 a single capsule, the flowers of the former being mo- 

 nopetalous, as in fox glove, and those of the latter di- 

 petalous, or tripetalous, as in Enchanter's night- 

 shade, frog's-bit, and water soldier ; the twenty-first, 

 of such as have a single capsule of the pod kind, 

 with four regular petals, as mustard ; the- twenty- 

 second, of such as have a single capsule of the pod 

 kind, with four irregular petals, as the pea ; and 

 the twenty-third, of such as have a single capsule, 

 but with flowers of five petals, as lychnis, and saxi- 

 frage. 



The twenty-fourth class, which is the first of the 

 monocotyledones division, was made to comprehend 

 the liliaceous plants ; the twenty-fifth the grasses ; 

 the ground of distinction between them being chiefly 

 this, that the latter are apetalous, have a jointed 

 hollow stem, and a single naked seed under each 

 flower. 



The twenty-sixth class was subjoined to the flower- 

 bearing herbs, under die denomination of anomalas, 

 as a sort of heterogeneous appendix. 



The seven remaining classes were formed so as to 

 comprehend all the trees and shrubs ; the palms, 

 which are monocotyledones, being included in the 

 twenty-seventh. And the trees and shrubs which 

 hare more than one cotyledon, in the xxviii. xxix. 

 xxx. xxxi. xxxii. or xxxiii. according as they are 

 apetalous, as the hazel ; bear fruit, that is umbilicated, 

 or with a pit in the top of it, as the pear and goose- 

 berry : not umbilicated, as the apricot and orange ; 

 have a seed vessel that is dry, but not of the pod kind, 

 as elm, ash, and maple ; or one that, besides being 

 dry, is of that kind, as broom and laburnum ; or can- 

 not be easily reduced under any of the preceding 

 classes, and are therefore termed as in the xxvi. class 

 of the herbaceous plants, anomalous. The charac- 

 ters of the subdivisions or orders, which arc no less 

 multifarious than those of the classes, were taken 

 from the qualities of plants and their place of growth, 

 the figure of the stem, the number, situation, sub- 

 stance and division, of the leaves, the situation and 

 disposition of the flowers and flower cup, the num- 

 ber and regularity of the petals, and the number and 

 Shape of the fruit. We may farther add, that the 

 characters of the genera, as defined by Tournefort, 

 were for the most part admitted. 



The system of Ray in its improved form, as we 

 have thus given it in detail, was not acted on by 

 himself ; for it was the fir st edition of it, as we have 

 already observed, that was introduced by him int 

 his Synopsis ; afterwards, with a few variations, int 



his General History of Plants. But it was Adopted Hiitory. 

 by Sir Hans Sloane in his Natural History iif Ja- ' ^ 

 maica ; by Dillenius, who added the twentieth class, 

 and made some other improvements on it in his Synop~ 

 sis of British Plants; by Marty n in his Catalogue 

 oftne Plants which grow naturally in the neighbour- 

 hood <>J Cambridge, to say nothing of others. And 

 although we are not disposed to deny that it is less 

 applicable to practice, on account of its intricacy, 

 than some which have been proposed since, we must 

 yet maintain, that, while it argues the author's very 

 extensive and accurate acquaintance with the affini- 

 ties of vegetables, it affords a very interesting and 

 profitable subject of speculation to a philosophical 

 mind : And a competent judge has accordingly 

 said, " that, viewed as an attempt to investigate 

 the order of nature, its merit is great and conspicu- 

 ous. The 1,3,4, 6, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 21, 22, 

 and 25 classes, are true natural assemblages ; and 

 consequently, to such as are already masters of the 

 science of plants, no plan of arrangement affords 

 equal pleasure with that of Ray. The order of na- 

 ture, where it could be traced, is carefully pointed 

 out ; and the affinities of plants delineated with a 

 masterly hand." We need scarcely add, that Ray 

 was long a fellow of the Royal Society. 



Joseph Pitton, or Tournefort as he is commonly Tourne- 

 called from the name of his patrimonial estate, the fort- 

 other great systematic botanist of this period, whom 5 r ? j^ 

 we mentioned, was born at Aix in Provence in 1656 ; 

 and, like Ray, devoted himself, from his.earliest years, 

 and with the most laudable and enterprising curiosity, 

 to the study of plants. He had been originally des- 

 tined by his parents for the clerical profession ; but 

 as the bent of his genius began to be daily more evi- 

 dent, and it was found, in the course of his education 

 at school, that the time which should have been 

 devoted to the classics, was often spent in roving 

 through the fields and admiring the beauty and rich- 

 ness of the vegetable kingdom ; the design was re- 

 linquished, and he was at length permitted to give 

 his undivided attention to his favourite pursuit. 

 Having made himself familiarly acquainted with the 

 flora round Aix, and of the neighbouring Alps, he 

 went in 1679 to the university of Moutpellier. When 

 he had spent some time there in medical studies, he 

 set out on a long journey of discovery among the 

 Pyrenean mountains, and through the north eastern 

 part of Spain ; in the course of which he was twice 

 plundered by the Miquelots, and once nearly crushed 

 to pieces by the falling of a precipice. In reference 

 to one of these incidents, we find his biographer 

 Jussieu saying, " Ut erat corpore validu?, sitis fa- 

 misque patiens, ac cceli tempestatibus assuetus, aviis 

 dum sese locis inhospitisque facilius committit, in, 

 montanos pradones incidit, qui excussa sarcina ubi 

 uihil prater aliquot herbas siccaset panem subnigram 

 iiivenere, spoliatum reliquerunt." 



On his return to Montpellier, he proceeded, with 

 little delay, to his native city ; and from thence ex- 

 tended his researches with the same ardent spirit of 

 curiosity, through Provence and Languedoc. Hav- 

 ing now procured a well-stored herbarium, and re- 

 duced it into a proper form, he betook himself, with 

 the conscious satisfaction of one who possessed the 



