PREFACE. Vll 



must be remarkably dull of apprehension, who could 

 not master them in a day. But is its application 

 equally easy ? that is the point. When, for example, a 

 specimen of a Monopetalous plant has lost its corolla, 

 or when the stamens or pistils are absent, either acci- 

 dentally, or constitutionally, as in Dioecious plants, 

 what Linnean Botanist can classify the subject of 

 inquiry ? Or where a genus comprehends species 

 varying in the number of their stamens, as for in- 

 stance, Polygonum, Salix, Stellaria, and hundreds of 

 others, who is to say which of the species is to deter- 

 mine the classification of the rest ? or when this point 

 has been settled, how^ is the student to know what 

 passed in the mind of the Botanical Systematist ? 

 The latter puts a genus into Octandria, because out 

 of ten species, one has constantly, and two occa- 

 sionally, eight stamens, and he includes in the same 

 class and order, all the other species of the genus, 

 although they have five, six, or ten stamens. Sup- 

 pose the student meets with one of the last, and 

 wishes to ascertain its name by the Linnean system, 

 he will look for it in Pentandria, or Hexandria, or 

 Decandria, where he will not find it. After w^asting 

 his time, and exhausting his patience in a vain pur- 

 suit, he must abandon the search in utter hopelessness, 

 for there is no other character that he can make use 



