On the Natural Arrangement of Plants. 301 



and names, hitherto with difficulty impi'essed on and retained 

 in the memory, from their want of connection or absolute 

 discordance, would by the views of relationship brought to 

 light by the natural system, be referred to groups of ideas al- 

 ready established in the mind. Some idea being formed of 

 each and all the leading groups which compose the vegetable 

 kingdom, it would only be necessary, on meeting with a new 

 plant, to refer it to one of these groups ; or, on the other hand, 

 on being told to what group any new plant belonged, we 

 have only to recall to mind the type-plant of that group, in 

 order to figure to ourselves the new individual and its proper- 

 ties and relationships. The mind must always remain in the 

 dark respecting any subject which it cannot comprehend as a 

 whole, and be in a state of distraction respecting any science, 

 the facts of which it cannot associate according to some leading 

 or connecting principle. The study of plants, according to 

 the Linnean or artificial system, is good to begin with, and to 

 follow to a certain extent ; its defect as a whole is, that it pre- 

 sents a crowd of unconnected images and facts. According to 

 the natural system, the vegetable kingdom is presented as a 

 whole, every part of which, though different from every other, 

 is yet related to the parts with which it comes in contact. 

 The Linnean system presents a heap of broken links, — of 

 bricks in a kiln, — or words in a dictionary; the natural 

 system presents a chain, a house, or a discourse. To survey 

 the vegetable kingdom by the artificial system, is to walk 

 through a country intersected everywhere by fields and 

 hedges, which may be very convenient and useful for culture, 

 but are proportionally injurious to the natural features : to 

 survey a country by the natural system, is to be carried from 

 the summit of one hill to another, and look down on the 

 general masses of woods, waters, and plains. 



Whoever, therefore, wishes to study plants so as to derive 

 the greatest possible quantity of knowledge and enjoyment, 

 from the least possible quantity of exertion, in study and ex- 

 pense of books, figures, or living plants, ought to direct his 

 views towards the natural system. We do not mean that he 

 ought to leave off the artificial system of Linneus, which can- 

 not yet, and probably never may be dispensed with, but he 

 ought to consider it merely as a step to the other. Every 

 plant that a learner gets the name of, either by the Linnean 

 system, or empirically, he ought to refer to its group in the 

 natural system, and as soon as possible, and by every means 

 in his power acquire a knowledge of one or more plants of 

 each of the principal groups of that system. There are three 



