THE 



PHILOSOPHICAL MAGAZINE 

 AND JOURNAL. 



31 st AUGUST 1826. 



XI. Some Account of the Spherical and Numerical System of 

 Nature o/M. Eli as Fries. By John Lindley, Esq. F.L.S., 

 fyc. fyc. 

 To the Editor of the Philosophical Magazine anH Journal. 

 My dear Sir, 



\ T a time when the doctrines of spherical and numerical 

 -^- divisions in nature are attracting much attention, it can- 

 not but be interesting to the public to be put in possession of 

 the latest opinions of M. Fries, who is the founder of the 

 system of quaternary arrangement, and the authority to which 

 the most philosophical of our writers upon the subject has 

 so repeatedly referred. These opinions are contained in 

 the Introduction to a work published by M. Fries in 1825, 

 under the name of Systema Orbis Vegetabilis, and may be said 

 to exhibit the most condensed and well-arranged statement 

 of the theory which has yet appeared. 



As the work is at present very rare in this country, the fol- 

 lowing abstract of such part of its contents as immediately re- 

 fers to the principles of the theory may possibly deserve your 

 notice. 



I make no comment, at this time, upon the laws of this or 

 similar systems, which are far too difficult and important to 

 be hastily discussed. I give M. Fries's words to the public 

 as nearly as possible, in the order in which he has arranged 

 them, and, I hope, in all cases in the sense of the author, in 

 order that those who are friendly to the original opinions of 

 that very acute reasoner may have the advantage of knowing 

 the present state of his ideas, and of seeing how far they agree 

 or disagree with the various theories which have been lately 

 proposed among ourselves. 



Such points only as have appeared to me to apply less to 

 the immediate principles of the system than to the application 

 of them have been omitted. 



I am, my dear Sir, yours truly, 



Acton Green, July 19, 1826. -JOHN LiNDLEY. 



Vol. 68. No. 340. Aug. 1826. L § 1. Na- 



