84 



TAXONOMY. 



CHAP. II. 



ARTIFICIAL CLASSIFICATION. 



' 125. 



If, now, we would either study the nature of plants them- 

 selves, or would learn their uses, in both cases, we feel the 

 necessity of having names assigned to them ; because with- 

 out names, we can neither make ourselves intelligible to 

 others, nor find out what others have remarked concerning 

 them. The Nomenclature of Plants is the first object of the 

 artificial arrangement. The second is to give them their 

 place in some order or other, and beside plants that are al- 

 ready known ; because without this, the bare knowledge of 

 names would be completely useless. 



126. 



When we find a plant, the simplest way of discovering its 

 name, and finding its place in the system, is to look into the 

 great Registers, or Scientific Catalogues, unless, in a complete- 

 ly empirical way, we betake ourselves to the turning over of 

 plates, which consumes much time, and yet often does not 

 lead to our object. But in order to be able to use those scien- 

 tific catalogues, or artificial systems, we must know the prin- 

 ciples according to which they are formed ; we must possess 

 the art, or have acquired the address, of regarding, with re- 

 spect to every plant, only the relations ; and of keeping in 

 our eye, the organs, upon whose diversity the artificial system 

 proceeds. 



127. 



The Artificial Method, or the System, must necessarily as- 

 sume, as the grounds of classification, such parts only as are 



