2 THE PHILADELPHIA FLORIST. [May 



L-v and knowledge which I have acquired from my slight study of this na- A, 

 rp tural system, and the complete disappointment and dissatisfaction ex- 

 perienced in wading through the Diandria and Diadelphia of Lin- 

 naeus, and his Dicecia and Syngenesia, I think I should obtain for De- 

 candolle and Jussieh a little more consideration, and yet allow no 

 disparagement to their great original — for Linnseus himself had the 

 rudiments of a natural system in his hands when nature lost her great 

 expounder. And here it may be conceded, that since the object of 

 any system of classification is to aid in imparting knowledge procured 

 by actual observation of nature, and the opening up of some channel 

 whereby the knowledge of great minds may be conveyed to the less 

 extensive intellects, and the finite and contracted mind of man may 

 aim at a knowledge in detail of the infinity and unlimited provision 

 of Providence for his pleasure and use — that system must be consider- 

 ed the most useful which accomplishes this object in the simplestand 

 most satisfactory manner, no matter if it were the emanation of a 

 Brahmin or a Turk. We are informed by Scripture history, that at 

 the Creation all creatures received a name ; that a distinctive term was 

 appropriated by our progenitor to each object which holds a place in 

 the family of nature, for man's convenience in his journey through the 

 material world. Could these original names (simple undoubtedly 

 they were,) have been handed down to us preserved or even modified, 

 how great a saving of labor, of anxiety, of earnest investigation, and 

 of oppressive study. But in the gradual corruption of society, men 

 looked away from the simple charms of nature and her creation, and 

 forgot the uses -as well as the beauties of these gifts of a provident Fa- 

 ther. Yet in the midst of the corruption of vice and apathy, of sensu- 

 al indulgence, an inherent desire of discrimination springs up in the 

 human intelligent being — a desire to know why springs up the blade 

 of grass or stalk of corn true to its time and place and individuality — 

 to what purpose the nutritive potato lies imbedded in the earth — mat- 

 ter stored up in its fleshy tuber, and the poisonous Tapioca, or Cassava 

 plant Jatropha Manihot, or Manihot utillissima contains in its organ- 

 ization a deadly poison, disappearing when reduced by the arts to an 

 article of food ; why the sugar cane should contain in its cells true su- 

 gar so useful in animal economy, and comprise with the sugar maple 

 and beet, a storehouse for the chemist. But examples are infinite as 

 nature herself. And then the variety of size, and form, and coloring, 

 and smell, who has defined — who can define, their laws or limits, from 

 the gigantic Banyan Ficus Indica, and the venerable Baobab or 

 Monkey bread, (Adansonia digitata,) of the tropics, not forgetting the 

 sturdy Oak : to the Chaffweed of Britain — (Centunculus minimus.) 

 the minute speedwell and dwarf willow, which are produced on J. 

 Alpine summits. Men born with an innate spirit of enquiry and dis- C» 



39V* ^QsB 



