t 114 3 



tker perfe(5i:ed Mr. method, as is evident 



from fhe arrangement he has given to the Britijk 

 plants, in the third edition of that author'$ 

 Sympjis, 



Several elegant fyflems have alfo been formed 

 from the flower^ as the bafis of the claffical cha- 

 rafler; in confidering which, both xht regularity 

 ^nd irregularity^ as well as the numher of the petals^ 

 have been made the principal diftindion, Rivini^ 

 at Leip/tc^ in 1690, was the firft who took the 

 flower as the foundation of his method, as did 

 Ruppius in 17 18. But no one carried this me- 

 thod to fuch perfe6tion as ^ournefort^ in 1694, who 

 forms his claffical charadler from the figure of the 

 flower^ and eftablifhes his 07'der^ or fubdivifions on 

 the different fituation of the fruity whether above 

 or below the empalement or receptacle. 



Befides thefe methods, in which the aifthors 

 have confidered one part* only, either fiozver or 

 fruity as the bafe of their fyftems, feveral others 

 have b^en conflruded of late years, in which ve- 

 getables have been arranged, as far as poffible, 

 according to what have been called the natural 

 claffes\ the foundations of which take in a nu- 

 merous fet of characters, arifing from a combina- 

 tion and agreement in the habit of the plants^ 

 as well as their harmony in the effential parts of 

 fruEiification. Among thefe, that of Van Royen^ late 

 profeiTor at Leyden^ is among the mod elegant at- 

 tempts towards this ultimum in botany. This is 

 exhibited in the Prodromus Flora Leydenjis^ 1740* 

 Jle is followed by Gmelin, in the Flora Sibirica^ 



