XX PREFACE, 



peats, that he honours the memory of this great 

 man; but not on account of his precision of de- 

 scription ; for this, except in the case of species and 

 genera, Linnaeus has himself acknowledged to be 

 prejudicial to an acquaintance with the natural me- 

 thod; nor on account of his learning in synonyms; 

 for this, though a very useful, is also but a very 

 humble species of compilation; and finally, not on 

 account of his having been a happy inventor of 

 words, since this is the excellence of a grammarian 

 rather than of the naturalist. The glory of Linnaeus 

 is built, as the author conceives, on much more 

 stable foundations ; for the man who first pointed 

 out the distinction between the natural method and 

 an artificial system, who first perceived the impos- 

 sibility of giving either accurate definitions or cha- 

 racters to natural groups, and who first remarked 

 the existence of intermediate genera between na- 

 tural orders, must always be considered as one of 

 the principal founders of our knowledge with re- 

 spect to the natural system, whensoever this shall 

 appear. 



A French botanist a has indeed wittily styled Lin- 

 naeus the Aristotle of the North : but this is to be 

 accounted a reflection on certain disciples of the 

 celebrated Swede, and not on himself. The merits 

 of Linnaeus and Aristotle must both be judged, not 



a Mirbel, Ekm, de Botanique. 



