CUVIER AND A. O. THOUARS. 



99 



real advantage, nevertheless, resulted to botany from these 

 labours : natural families were better defined ; a more 

 precise distinction was made between complete and incom- 

 plete flowers ; and lastly, the great division of plants into 

 "monocotyledons" and "dicotyledons" was established. 



The characters of several classes were given with great 

 precision ; various technical terms were introduced, which 

 proved very useful as regards accuracy of language ; and 

 lastly, Ray propounded several principles and general laws 

 respecting methods, which have since been very generally 

 adopted. In 1703 a new edition of this ' Methodus ' was 

 published, with important additions. 



Whilst the thoughts of Ray were thus directed to 

 methods in general, he did not neglect the study of spe- 

 cies, and especially of those of his own country. His 

 * Catalogue of the Plants of England,' published first in 

 1677, and arranged in alphabetical order, has been the 

 basis of the Floras of that country. 



The edition of 1690, entitled a 'Synopsis,' is held in 

 high esteem, and is an excellent work. It is arranged 

 according to his method. In it great sagacity is dis- 

 played in the synonomy of the species, and it is also en- 

 riched with a great number of plants, for which the 

 author was indebted to several of his botanical friends, 

 such as Dale, Sloane, Petiver, &c. A third and much 

 enlarged edition of this work appeared in 1696. Dillenius 

 edited a fourth, infinitely more complete, in 1724 ; and 

 Hill arranged another in 1760, on the Linnsean system. 

 Having made known the plants of his own country, Ray 

 undertook the comparison of them with those of other 

 parts of Europe : this task he executed by arranging in a 

 catalogue those species not found in England, which he 

 had collected in his travels. This work appeared in 1673. 

 He afterwards found that it might be made of much 

 more general interest in the difierent countries to which 

 it referred, if he collected together all the species which 

 had been observed ; so that at last it became an entirely 

 new work, which was published in 1694, under the title 



