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SYSTEMATIC ARRANGEMENT OF PLANTS. 



SINCE the time of Linnaeus, it has been considered 

 the only end and aim of botanists to class and name 

 plants, which, as an amusement for passing time in 

 a harmless manner, is unquestionably pretty and in- 

 teresting, though by stopping here it seldom leads to 

 any result more useful than this, and cannot as such 

 be considered in the light of science and philosophy, 

 whose object it always is to trace effects to their causes. 

 When considered, however, as the mere rudiments of 

 science, as the first steps which a beginner must 

 take, as the horn book and spelling book, which it 

 is necessary to master before it is possible to read the 

 book of Nature, where the laws of causes and effects 

 are to be studied ; the classing and naming of plants 

 is highly useful nay, quite indispensable. 



It follows most clearly, that to consider as genuine 

 science an acquaintance, however extensive, with mere 

 classification, whether that be termed artificial, like 

 that of Linnaeus, or natural, like that of Jussieu, is 

 a gross and baneful delusion, though it is a delusion 

 which has long prevailed, and at this moment con- 

 tinues to vitiate the observation, and waste the time, 

 of some of the most ingenious men ; while it misleads 

 the beginner, at the commencement of his studies, 

 into a by-path, from which he can seldom again 



