BOTANY. 



France, with the eflahhflied reputation and amliority of their 

 refpeftively favoured cotintryman. Several other fyltems 

 were formed about the fame time, among whom Bocrhaave 

 in partiodar had great merit ; but none of them fo\nid many 

 profclytes, or could boaftof long duration. The firft publi- 

 cations of Linnaeus made their way flowly, and with nuicli 

 difficulty. In England, fo late as the year 1762, Mr. 

 Hudfon \Vas the firft vvlio puhlilhed a national Flora, ar- 

 ranged on the principles of the I-innxan fyllcm. In France, 

 owing to the perfonal antipathy of BufFon, the ideas of the 

 learned Swede met with much greater and more pointed 

 oppofition : but they found an early advocate in the duke dc 

 Noailles ; and, in 1765, the claffUication was adopted in 

 the " Flora Monfpeliaca," of profefTor Gouan. 



The diftiniStion ot fexual parts in plants had been dif- 

 covered, and pretty generally admitted, before the time of 

 Linnius : but he was the firft who made it the bafis of an 

 artificial fyftem. The firll (Ivetch of his " Syftema Naturx" 

 was publiflitd in 1735 ; and the " Fundamenta Botanica," 

 in 17 J6. In I7;7 they were followed by the " Critica 

 Botanica," " Genera Plantarum," Hortus Cliffortianus," 

 " Flora Lapponica," and " Methodus Sexualis." In i7'5i 

 appeared his great and nioft finifhed elementary work, the 

 " Philofophia Botanica;" and in 1753, ^'"^ firft edition of 

 the " Species Plantarum," which completed his fyftem, by 

 extending it to the loweft divifion under which individual 

 plants are colletlively arranged. In his " Genera Planta- 

 rum," he had given a diftinftnefs and precifion to generic 

 charafters, which they had never before received ; and in 

 this laft publication he conferred the fame obligation on the 

 fpecies ; with the addition of irtv'uil names, coniifting of a 

 fingle word, inllead of the teAmuifpecific names, as they were 

 called, by which the converfation of botanifts had till then 

 been burdened and embajraffed. This innovati(>n was at 

 firft violently condemned by a few difciples of the old fchools, 

 from an apprehenfion that it would be unfavourable to the 

 recolleAion of fpecific diftinttions ; but its obvious con- 

 venience has long gained it univerfal currency. 



Notvvithftanding the fupcrlative merit of I>inm:us, he 

 found a rival and an oppofer in Switzerland, as well as in 

 France. The mighty genius of Haller could not con- 

 defcend to walk in the trammels of anotlitr man. In his 

 hiftory of the plants of Switzerland, Ibii'ed by the very able 

 and judicious prefident of the Linncean fuciety, one of the 

 moft excellent and complete Floras the world ever faw, he 

 has adopted a method depending chiefly on the number 

 of the ftamens, combined with the divifions of the co- 

 rolla. But his fyftem is now little talked of, and Icfs 

 ftudied. 



Linna'us devoted the greatcft part of his life to the con- 

 flruftion and completion of a fyftem confefledly artificial ; 

 but he was neverthelefs fully fenilble, that the perfcdlion of 

 the fcience requires an arrangement founded folely on natural 

 affinities. The idea of fuch an arrangement had been con- 

 ceived, and partly executed, by feveral of .his predeceffors. 

 The improved fyftem of Ray, in particular, is a noble efiay 

 towards reducing the whole vegetable creation into fix natu- 

 ral families. All other diilributions a'C only proofs of the 

 prefent defeftive ftate of knowledge, and are to be employed 

 merely as helps for the attainment of a confummate fyltem. 

 Linnxus has accordingly left what he calls fragments of a 

 natural order, without pointing out their peculiar diftinguifti- 

 jng characters; and the fubftance of his leftures on natural 

 orders has been publifhed, fince his death, by his pupil Gifeke, 

 in which the omiffion is, in fome degree, remedied; though, 

 at the fame time, it is ftrenuoufly maintained, that fuch cha- 

 radlera as fliali be at once completely comprehenfive, and 



8 



; 



exclufivcly difcriminating, arc, in the nature of things, abfo- 

 lutcly impofTiblc. 



Adanfon, a French traveller in Africa, has alfo attempted 

 to form nat\iral families of plants, not from the confideration 

 of any particular part, but of all, without exception, from 

 the root to the feed. But, independent <jf a multitude of 

 other objeftions, it labours under the infnperable impedi- 

 ment of having the diftiuftive charadteis of tach family 

 drawn out to the length fometimcs of four or ^\\x pages, witli» 

 out being capable ot an abridgment. 



The moft fiiccff^fid attempt of this kind is that of Anthony 

 Lawrence de Juffieu, the illuftrious nej)hew of three illuftri- 

 ous brothers, who have been all dilliiiguiftK-d fortheii- attach- 

 ment to botany, and for their eminent fejviees to it. The 

 outlines of this fyftem wen- llruck out by Bernard dc Juirieii, 

 demonftrator in the royal gardens at I'ai is ; but owe their 

 prelent more mature form to the (kill and perfevcriiig appli- 

 cation of his nephew, who fuccecded him in liis office. It 

 is founded firft on the number of the cotyledons of the feed ; 

 next, on the iufertion of the ilamens with refpeft to the pif- 

 til, whether immediately on the receptacle, the calvx, or 

 the piftil itfelf ; or mediately, by the means of the corolla, 

 fimilarly lituated ; and fo on, from the effential to the non- 

 eflential, from the more to the lefs important parts, in a de- 

 fcending progreffion, to fuch as arc the moft variable and of 

 the leaft value. 



A methodical difpofition of plants, from the charafter of 

 the fruit, has lately been publilhcd by Grertner, a German 

 botanift, who has laboured in this efiential part with greater 

 diligence and accuracy than any other writer. 



But notvvithftanding the acknowledged merit of thefc 

 eftays, the Linnsan ftill continues the prevailing fyftem, to 

 which all the new genera, conftituted for plants fince difco- 

 vered, are regularly referred ; and it is to the advantage of 

 the Icience, that it (hould, for a long time yet to come, pre- 

 ferve itsafcendancy. It is capable, indeed, of many improve^ 

 ments ; but Inch improvements fliould be flowly and cautioufly 

 propofed, always keeping in view an approximation to a na- 

 tural order. Moft ot the projefts, whicli have hitherto been 

 formed for this pmpofe, betray more ralhnefs than acute dif- 

 cernment, more love of innovation than capacity for removing 

 real imperfecitions. While they feem to acquire greater fim- 

 plicity, they become achially more artificial, and more vio- 

 lently deftroy the conncilion of natural affinities. The d«- 

 falcations of the refpeftable Thunberg have not been gene- 

 rally admitted ; the additional ones of Gmelin have been 

 ahiiuft univerfally condemned ; and Wildenow, the lall and 

 beft editor of the Species Plantarum, has reftored all the 

 eitdlcd cla.Tes. Dr. Smith, with his ufual judgment, haa 

 only expunged the order moiiogamia from the cVAi Jynaenefia, 

 and retained in the clafs pd/ygitmia only fuch plants as have 

 an efiential diftereuce in tiie lUudlurc of their perfedl and im» 

 perfect flowers. 



See the article Ci..\ssKricATioN of Plants, where the 

 ditferent lyftems will be detailed and examnied. See alfo 

 the Bibliothcca Botanica both of Linnxus and of Haller ; 

 I.,a Marck's Preliminary Difcourfe to the botanical part of 

 the French Eucyclopcedia ; Dr. Smith's Introdudtory Ad- 

 drefs to the Liniiicau Society ; Dr. Pulteney's View of th» 

 Writings of Linnxus ; and liis Sketches of the Progrefs oi' 

 Botany in England. 



Botany B<iy, in Geography, a capacious bay on the cafti 

 ern coaft of New Holland, fo called by captain Cook, who 

 anchored there on the 20th of April 1770, from the great 

 number of plants which were found in its vicinity by fir Jo- 

 feph (then Mr.) Banks, and Dr. Solander. The land on 

 the fea-coall is moderately high, and nearly level, but in 



general 



