PREFACE. ? 



' u — - i >... _ 



to obviate every difficulty, making, at the 

 fame time, fuch alterations in the fyftem of 

 that author, as infefts, with charailers un- 

 known to him at the time of his framing 



o 



it, (hall render abfolutely neceiTary. 



With refpedt to the following fheets, 

 if, on the one hand, I have not anfwered 

 the expeditions of my friends, I flatter 

 mvfelf that I have exceeded them on the 

 other, by extending my plan confiderably 

 beyond the original defign ; for I have not 

 only taken all the pains in my power to 

 render the meaning of Linnaeus as plain as 

 poffible -, but confidering that it would be 

 an advantage to beginners to be acquainted 

 with the fyftems of fome other authors, 

 each of which has his feparate admirers, 

 and has made confiderable alterations in 

 that of Linn^us, I willingly undertook to 

 collate and compare thole different Syf- 

 tems, and explain the reafons which in- 

 duced their authors to differ from their 

 common Mailer. The mod difiinguifhed 

 among thefe are Geoffroy, Scopoli and 

 Schasffer ; the firft of whom, in his Hif- 



toire 



