Notice of Books : 



[April 



order of a plant, is the easiest ; but, that done, it often happens that 

 nothing is learned : for, should the specimen under examination have a 

 stamen or style more or leys than the regulai- number, and nothing is 

 more common among tropical plants, we look in vain in the class or 

 order, where, according to our specimen, it should be found ; and, when 

 found, still that system conveys no collateral information regarding the 

 relations of the plant, or of the nature of the properties with which it 

 may be endowed. 



•* In drawing these comparisons, it is not my wish unduly to exalt the 

 one at the expense of the other, for in truth they are so very different 

 that it is impossible to compare them ; they both have their advantages 

 and disadvantages, and, in the present state of the science, are both 

 necessary : I certainly think, however, the preponderance of good is 

 greatly in favour of (he natural method. In thus giving the preference 

 to that system which enables the student, who has made considerable 

 progress in its study, to look over a large collection of plants, not one 

 of which he had ever seen before, and readily refer probably as many as 

 19 out of every 20 to its proper natural order, from family likeness 

 alone, lam far from as yet wishing to see the other altogether exploded, 

 since by it we are often enabled quickly to determine abnormal plants 

 that we could not so easily have done by the other j and, in such eases, 

 I still occasionally find the advantage of having formerly become fami- 

 liar with the Linnsean system. Though to this extent I approve of it, 

 I could not recommend it for general use, as its natural tendency is to 

 contract our ideas, by concentrating our attention too exclusively on one 

 set of organs, and confining our enquiries to the investigation of the 

 names of species only, in place of, as is the case with the other, ex- 

 panding them with the growth of our knowledge, by extending our 

 researches, from the examination of species, to the investigation of 

 masses in all their bearings. 



*' While for these cogent reasons, we are, in the present advanced state 

 of the science, gradually permitting that once celebrated system to drop 

 into oblivion, we must not forget how much Botany is indebted to it 

 for its present advancement. The extent of these obligations can only 

 be justly appreciated by comparing the botanical works of its great 

 author with those of his immediate predecessors, not one of the plants 

 described by whom can now be made out from their descriptions, unaid- 

 ed by some collateral circumstance, or by plates, and too often, even 

 with these aids, they are still unknown. Immediately on its introduc- 

 tion into practice, order supplanted disorder, arrangement and method 

 succeeded and dispersed the previous confusion and perplexity, as light 



