354 HISTORY OF BOTANY. 



knowledge of the essential construction and vital 

 mechanism of plants. He will consider an artificial 

 method as a means of arriving at a natural method. 

 Accordingly, however much some of his followers 

 may have overlooked this, it is what Linnaeus him- 

 self always held and taught. And though what he 

 executed with regard to this object was but little 12 , 

 the distinct manner in which he presented the rela- 

 tions of an artificial and natural method, may justly 

 be looked upon as one of the great improvements 

 which he introduced into the study of his science. 



Thus in the Classes Plantarum, (1747,) he 

 speaks of the difficulty of the task of discovering 

 the natural orders, and of the attempts made by 

 others. "Yet," he adds, "I too have laboured at 

 this, have done something, have much still to do, 

 and shall labour at the object as long as I live." 

 He afterwards proposed sixty-seven orders, as the 

 fragments of a natural method, always professing 

 their imperfection 13 . And in others of his works 14 

 he lays down some antitheses on the subject after 

 his manner. "The natural orders teach us the 

 nature of plants ; the artificial orders enable us to 

 recognize plants. The natural orders, without a 

 key, do not constitute a Method ; the Method ought 

 to be available without a master." 



12 The natural orders which he proposed are a bare enume- 

 ration of genera, and have not been generally followed. 



13 Phil. Bot. p. 80. 



14 Genera Plantarum, 1764. See Prcclcct. in Ord. \at. 

 p. xlviii. 



