348 Mr. Seton's Method of 



of notches, cut on sticks, each notch denoting one of the 

 ten ciphers, as in Fig. 1. 



To avoid inversion, observe always to read from the 

 blank end of the stick towards that on which the notches 

 are placed, and this will come naturally, if it be held in the 

 left hand. As nothing can be more easy than to cut those 

 notches on any stick, and as the number denoted by each 

 will be impressed on the memory by a very little practice, 

 it is evident, that they may be used to an unlimited extent, 

 with the greatest facility : for example, if it were required 

 to put the number 590 on a mark, it would be done as 

 in Fig. 2. 



The only way in which the memory is apt to misgive, in 

 this scheme, is, by confounding /&vl&h,A&v with 

 each other (as a child would confound the figures 6 

 and 9), but this slight inconvenience will be remedied 

 by the following key, which may be easily borne in the 

 mind. Let us recollect that, in writing, we naturally draw a 

 stroke from the right, at top, to the left, at bottom, thus / , 

 and not in the opposite direction, thus, \ : now, in all of the 

 above numbers, which differ from each other in the di- 

 rection of the diagonal line, that which is in the direction 

 usual in writing, precedes the other ; thus r z 3 V 6 7 8 9 5 tne 

 other two, * & ^, will not be confounded, on recollecting 

 that v is the usual Roman notation of 5. 



In order to express more particularly the numbers, which 

 refer to a botanical catalogue, a practice of great use to 

 every cultivating botanist, we cut the stick in the form of 

 a prism of four sides, whereof one is narrower than the rest : 

 or of a triangle, with one of the angles cut off ; see Fig. 3, 



