1852.] THE PHILADELPHIA FLORIST. 3 



( ^crimination, began to admire and regard these offsprings of a common A,) 

 gp parent ; nor more startling to Galen, was the appearance at his foot c !j 

 of the first human skeleton he had seen, than no doubt was, to Hum- \ 

 boldt and Bonpland, to Linnaeus and Park, the majesty of the gigan- 

 tic inhabitants of the forest of tropical climates, or the minute objects 

 which at times riveted their attention in their journeyings over the 

 arid plains, the still and humid jungles and cold mountain tops, 

 whither their thirst for science had led them. And who can behold 

 the uncouth forms of Cacti, which adorn the sandy plains of Central 

 America, and in some cases wander into the fields of an adjoining State, 

 without admiring the variety of forms which comprise the Vegetable 

 Kingdom, and the still more interesting orchids or plant animals, 

 which hanging: from trees, seem to contend in form with the gaudy 

 flies that flock around them. Many of these now adorn the plant 

 houses of your vicinity, which, while they astonish and please, instruct 

 the humble student of Nature. Man, the reasoning steward of God's 

 creation, preserves, encourages, and loves these objects his co-partners 

 in the great field of life. A key is required to make the study in- 

 tellectual, to read the Book of Nature. God has told Linnaeus, Decan- 

 dolle, Humboldt, to write the history, and they with a host of others 

 have obeyed the summons. 



I now come to the consideration of the practical portion of this en- 

 quiry. It has been proved by experience that the simple plan devised 

 by Linnaeus, is useless as a means of classification, that it conveys 

 nothing more to the student than a comparative fact, of trifling mo- 

 ment. Unites dissimilar individuals, and separates those already united, 

 by the natural perceptive faculties of the mind. Who would for a mo- 

 "ment think of enumerating in the same category, the Poa an?wa, 

 (annual meadow grass,) which annoys the Gardener by springing up 

 every w r here within his privileged domain, and the Polycarporn 

 tetraphyllum, or All seed, so rare- in gardens and so dissimilar in habit 

 and form, or still greater anomaly the Arundo Donax, with its 

 tropical aspect, and strong stems with the Holosteum umbellatum, so 

 minute and characteristic of a temperate climate. Who would expect 

 to find a majestic and stately tree the congener of the minute herb, as 

 we find it in the Natural System 1 the enquiring student who studies 

 structure we answer ! for in the most perfect modification of that 

 scheme, first indeed suggested perhaps, by Linnaeus himself, or at least 

 at a very early period in his Fragments of a Natural System, we in 

 it find a complete description of the entire plant, its roofs, stem, leaves, 

 stipules,, petioles, bracts, peduncle, inflorescence, calyx, corolla, petals 

 stamens, ovary, fruit and seeds; following still further its embryo, with J 

 its surrounding albumen, if any be present, and the germinating pro. _h 

 accesses hilum, micropel, radicle, plumule ; but we cannot pretend to G\ 



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