INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 



The object of Botany is the arrangement and description of 

 Plants. Systematic Botany must depend upon such principles, 

 that it may have a universal application. That the language may 

 be useful, and attain its direct object, it must be descriptive of 

 the particular and minute, as well as the great, facts in the world 

 of vegetables. An artificial and a natural method have been 

 adopted lor this purpose ; and both were begun by Linnaeus, the 

 Father of Botany. The former was carried to great extent and 

 perfection by him ; the latter has been greatly improved, and, 

 under great modifications, carried to much perfection by later 

 botanists. In its details, much yet remains to be ascertained and 

 settled. 



In the artificial system of Linnaeus, the Classes, Orders, and 

 Genera were determined by the organs employed in the produc- 

 tion of the seed, or rather, by the several parts of the flower and 

 fruit. As these organs were visible or invisible, he divided plants 

 into the two great divisions of Phenogamous and Cryptogamous, 

 that is, having visible and invisible organs of reproduction. As this 

 system, with all its simplicity and beauty, and ease of application, 

 and extensive adoption, associated plants of very different struc- 

 ture, the natural method has been adopted by the most distin- 

 guished botanists of the present age. In the Natural System, 

 plants are associated according to their resemblance in structure 

 and organization. To the great Linnaean divisions just mention- 

 ed, correspond the Vasculares and Cellulares, or, as they are also 

 called, from another great fact, the Flowering and the Flowerless 

 plants. Between the structure of these two divisions, there seems 

 to be a pretty marked distinction. To the cellular structure of 

 the Cellulares, only a mere allusion can be made. 



