14 The Natural System. 



after its inventor. This, no doubt, contributed largely to the 

 dissemination of botanical knowledge, and was of much benefit 

 to the state of the science as it then existed ; but the researches 

 of modern botanists, aided by the great improvements in 

 optics which have so facilitated their observations on life and 

 structure, have shown that it is by no means suited to or suffi- 

 cient for the advancement of later times. Indeed, its chief 

 merit consists in the convenient clue which it offers to the name 

 alone of an unknown plant, while as to structure or properties 

 it affords no indication. It has been compared to the alphabeti- 

 cal index of a book, which directs the reader to the point which 

 he wishes to ascertain, without giving him any information as 

 to the general nature of the book, or of the method in which its 

 subjects are arranged. Indeed, Linnaeus himself was fully 

 sensible of its defects, and by no one more than by him have 

 the superior advantages of a Natural System been appreciated. 

 When he framed his Artificial System, he probably intended 

 it only for temporary employment, and to facilitate that 

 acquaintance with the vegetable kingdom which must precede 

 the formation of a perfect Natural System, and he anticipated 

 the time when greater progress should cause it to be aban- 

 doned, and botanists to revert to the system of nature. Though 

 not then fully developed, he said that the elucidation of the 

 principles of the latter should be the first and ultimate aim of 

 botanists, to this end should their labors be directed, and the 

 merest fragments of such a system should be carefully studied; 

 and he adds, " For a long time I have labored to establish it, 

 I have many discoveries, but have not been able to perfect it; 

 yet while I live, I shall continue to labor for its completion. 

 Those are the greatest botanists who shall be able to correct, 

 augment, and perfect this method." From this it is evident, 

 that those who, out of veneration for the name of the great 

 Naturalist, adhere to his system to the exclusion of one formed 

 on natural principles, and imagine they have his authority for 

 so doing, mistake his views and misrepresent his declarations. 

 The Linnoean, or Artificial System, as we shall hereafter call 

 it, in contradistinction to the Natural System, is not, how- 

 ever, even at present, without its advantages. To one who is 

 not ambitious of extending his studies into the higher regions 



