A 



JOURNAL 



NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, CHEMISTRY, 



AND 



THE ARTS. 



APRIL, 1812* 



ARTICLE I. 



On fresh-water Plants. In a Letter from Mrs, AgKeb 

 Ibbetson. 



To Mr. NICHOLSON. 

 SIR, 



JL Ventured to obserte in my last letter, tlfat, without The necessity 

 keeping to a certain classification in plants, when their dis- ^f *"^pR^"i 

 section was pointed out, especially when no prints attended 

 the work, it wa» almost impossible to comprehend it, though 

 tierfectly well instructed in the subject intended to be de- 

 scribed* The natural system, which arranges certain figures 

 together, and finds a similitude unmarked by the eye till 

 the knife has dissected and pointed it out, is perfectly un- 

 connected with any other selection. Thus, the grasses, 

 water-grasses, ferns, mosses, fresh-water plants, and crypto- 

 gamia, are all so completely unlike, that to give their parts 

 in a cursory manner, is to render them almost unintelligible. 

 As long as the several divisions are arranged in the usual 

 course of rind, bark, wood, &c., they may all be compared 

 with the fortoation of trees : and so long as the wood is 

 Vol. XXXI, No. 144— April, 1812. R placed 



