SIR J. E. SMITH. 



81 



Possibly the ' Stirpium Europseamm extra Britannias 

 nascentium Sylloge,' which appeared in 1694, originated 

 in the author's attention being recalled by the last men- 

 tioned publication to the contemplation of exotic plants. 

 In this volume he collects from Clusius, Bauhin, Columna, 

 and others, various additions to his own discoveries, and 

 the whole are disposed in alphabetical order. A geogra- 

 phical view of plants, which he had himself gathered in 

 his foreign travels, is subjoined ; and the volume concludes 

 with alphabetical catalogues, selected from Boccone's Sici- 

 lian plants and other recent authors. It is in the pre- 

 face to this book that he first adverts to the system of 

 Eivinus, not without just applause of that author's work, 

 a copy of which had been presented to Ray. He com- 

 mends the apt distribution of the genera, the clearness 

 and conciseness of the style, the purity of the Latin, and 

 the beauty as well as exactness of the plates. He, how- 

 ever, contends for the ancient distinction of plants into 

 trees and herbs, which, as we have seen, he had himself 

 mentioned as unphilosophical. In the rest of his criti- 

 cisms, though " much may be said on both sides," and 

 though these controversialists, like others, profit by the 

 intricacies and anomalies of nature to make good their 

 arguments, concealing themselves, like the cuttle-fish, in 

 their ink, still we cannot but give our testimony to the 

 greater solidity of Ray's principles, as derived from the 

 fruits and seeds of plants, than to the seemingly more ele- 

 gant ones of Rivinus, deduced from the flower, which last 

 undoubtedly lead, in their practical application, to some 

 paradoxical combinations. But on this subject we may 

 say more in its proper place. In this preface Ray points 

 out the importance and use of the stamens and pistils, 

 succinctly explaining the sexual doctrine as now univer- 

 sally admitted. 



One advantage arose from the epistolary altercation of 

 Rivinus and Ray, that it led the latter to revise his own 

 system, and to republish it in an improved state. Happy 

 if such were more generally the fruit of contention, that 



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