98 



MEMORIALS OF RAY : 



the narrowness of the scheme proposed by Wilkins, and 

 being desirous of giving a freer scope to the ideas he had 

 already conceived v^ith respect to the classification of 

 plants, published a work on this subject, under the title 

 of 'Methodus Plantarum nova;' Lond. 1682, 1 vol. 8vo. 

 In this book, as he acknowledges, he was much assisted 

 by the labours of his predecessors, such as Csesalpinus 

 and Jungius, which were at that time but little known. 

 He also states that he had availed himself of all that 

 suited his purpose in the writings of Morison, a professor 

 at Oxford ; but the fact is, that he simply republished the 

 improved method invented by the latter, starting, as he 

 does, with the dichotomous arrangement, and which he 

 never abandoned. He agrees with Morison also in the 

 division of plants into ligneous and herbaceous, with the 

 former of which he commences, but he introduces an im- 

 provement, in making but two subdivisions of that class, 

 viz. trees and shrubs, instead of three, as Morison had 

 done, borrowing from Theophrastus ; and it is only, as he 

 says, that he might not depart too widely from common 

 usage, that he refrained from not making any division of 

 it at all. In fact, he afterwards became convinced of the 

 propriety of not doing so, bat stopped at that conclusion, 

 and obstinately remained there, since he thought that 

 Natiu"e itself had afforded a precise means of distinction 

 between trees and herbs, and that this distinction was 

 indicated by the presence of buds, the existence of which 

 he admitted only in trees. He was the first to announce 

 that buds were new annual plants, springing up from the 

 old ones; but he proceeded only half way in his dis- 

 covery, as he refused to recognize the presence of buds 

 in herbaceous plants. Thus, as it happened, this beautiful 

 observation served only to retard the efforts which Rivinus 

 had just made to reheve botany from the trammels which 

 impeded its progress for half a century longer, or until 

 the time of Linnseus ; and this was one of the principal 

 points that afforded ground for discussion between Kay 

 and Rivinus, of which more will be said hereafter. A 



