BOTANY. 



21 



of the 2.500 plants, described in hr, hiotory, and of 

 which we have intimated our intention to subjoin the 

 outline, was founded on different considerations, but 

 chiefly on that of the number of the stamen* compa- 

 red with the divisions of the corolla. 

 It was as follows : 



1. Fungi. 



2. Musci. 



3. Epiphyllospernno. 

 4-. Apetalz. 



5. Gramina. 



6. Graminibus affinin. 



7. Monocotyledonea Petaloidese. 

 S. Polystemones. 



9. Diplostemones. 



10. Hostemones. 



1 1 . Mejostemones. 



12. Staminibus sesquialteris. 



13. sesquitertiis. 



14. Staminibus quatuor, ringentes. 



15. Congregatse. 



In general, however, the simplicity of the Linnxan 

 method, and 'its easy and unlimited application to 

 practice, gave it, from the first moment of its being 

 made public, such a decided superiority over all 

 others, that, in the course of a few years afterwards, 

 it had been quietly allowed to supersede them, and 

 was beginning to be taught in the European univer- 

 sities ; and, consequently, the history of botany, from 

 the time that Linnanis published the Pliilosophia Bota- 

 nica, or even for some years before, may be said to be 

 little else than a detail of the means which have been 

 used to trace more fully the principle of his system, 

 or to discover new plants, and refer them, by a just 

 description, to their place in that system. From that 

 time, indeed, the zeal for research broke forth with 

 new ardour, like a flame that has gathered strength ; 

 and the progress of discovery, now that botanists felt 

 they were proceeding on certain fixed, but obvious 

 principles, and directing their united exertions to the 

 advancement of the same common object, became 

 proportionably rapid. 



The doctrine of the sexes of plants, which consti- 

 tutes the ground- work, or principle, as we have term- 

 ed it, of the Linnsean system, had been already, in a 

 great measure, established, after b^ing originally sug- 

 gested by our countrymen Dr Grew and Sir Tho- 

 mas Millington, by the arguments of Camerarius, 

 Morland, GeofFroy, Vaillant, and Linnaeus. But from 

 this time it became a subject of still farther investi- 

 gation, and was much confirmed and illustrated by 

 the experiments and observations of Gleditsch, Wat- 

 son, Trew, Bonnet, Kolreuter, Sprengel, and others. 

 The two last named gentlemen, in particular, have 

 paid the most minute and assiduous intention to the 

 subject ; .and it may be worth while to add, that 

 Sprengel, who, if our information be correct, was 

 formerly a clergyman, and resides now as a private 

 gentleman at Berlin, has, within these few years, 

 communicated to the world the result of many tedious 

 and delicate observations, in a work entitled Das Ent- 

 dckte Gehfimniss der natur im Ban und in der Be* 

 fruchtung der Blumcn, or, The Secrets of Nature in 

 '.he Structure and Fecundation of Flowers. 



The range of the science, in what rwpects the Hiitorr. 

 discovery and systematic description and drlincation ' "-" 

 of plants, too, began, as we have just now Hinted, to d "c'""' 

 widen apace : And, in order to assist the mind, in ; 1)r(> . 

 some degree, in tracing its progress, we shall proceed p c an i. 

 to give a brief detail of what has been effected, since ny- 

 the time we refer to, both in indigenous, by which 

 we understand European, and in exotic botany. In 

 Europe, several countries and districts had been si- 

 ready a good deal explored ; so that botanists, by com- 

 bining the fruit of their own researches with those of 

 their predecessors, were able to lay before the public 

 a pretty full account of the plants growing in them ; 

 and these accounts, from the circumstance, it should 

 seem, of their being tolerably complete, were pub- 

 lished, for the most part, under the title of Cata- 

 logues or Floras. 



A catalogue of the plants of Holland, for instance, r n Holland, 

 which had been published by De Gorter in 174-5, 

 was rcpublished in a much more complete form in 

 1767, under the title of Flora Belgica ; and this again 

 was afterwards enriched by repeated supplements. 



The plants of Britain, which had before been [ n Britain, 

 pretty fully enumerated by Ray, became a subject 

 of investigation to Sir John Hill, who attempted 

 a description of them after the Linnsean method 

 in his Flora Rritanica, published in 1760. But, 

 as the task was executed in a manner quite un- 

 worthy of his abilities, Mr William Hudson, some 

 time Demonstrator of Botany in the Garden of Chel- 

 sea, and F. R.S. was led to turn his attention to the 

 same object ; and, availing himself of an extensive ac- 

 quaintance with nature, as well as of the peculiar 

 advantages which his residence in the British Museum 

 afforded him, he succeeded, two years afterwards, in 

 completing and publishing his valuable work, the 

 Flora Anglicana. In 1776, Dr Withering of Bir- 

 mingham produced A Botanical Arrangement, as he 

 entitles it, of all the Vegetables naturauy growing in 

 Great Britain ; a work which, since that time, has 

 been republished with manyf additions, in four octavo 

 volumes. And in the following year, the Rev. John 

 Lightfoot contributed not a little to promote the 

 same general object, by publishing a Flora of Scot- 

 land. Since that time, a good deal has been also 

 done in the way of exploring particular districts, andof 

 publishing catalogues of the plants growing in them, 

 as will be evident to any one who examines the Flora 

 Londinensis of Curtis ; the Flora Cantabrigiensia 

 (which may be considered as a more enlarged view 

 of Dr Marty n's Plantae Cuntabrigienses, arranged 

 according to the Linnaean method) [of Relhan ; the 

 Flora Ozoniensis of Dr Sibthorp ; the Plantae Ebo- 

 racenses, published lately in the Transactions of the 

 Linnxan Society, of Teesdale ; and a few other bota- 

 nical surveys, which we have not time to specify. 

 But. what is particularly- worthy of notice, is, that 

 since tlvat time, Dr James Edward Smith, the pre- 

 sent learned and accomplished president of the Lin- 

 naean Society, has favoured the public with two most 

 valuable works of a general nature, combining the 

 labours or his predecessors with the discoveries made 

 since their time. The first, which he has entitled 

 English Botany, consists of 3 vols 8vo, in which the 



