174 Chapter 4<^. 
Oriental plants. As they were all dried fpd* 
cimens, and the colkaion extenfive, con- 
iifting of 640 fpecies, it required the aid of 
an able hand to dillinguiih and apply fyno- 
nyms to fo confiderable a number. This 
catalogue, therefore, which is annexed, with 
the engravings of a few of the plants, to 
the firrt edition of Dr. Shaw's elaborate 
work, niay be confidered eventually, as the 
work of the botanical ProfeiTor. 
After the completion of the Hortus E/- 
tha7ne7ijh^ he purfued his " Hiftory of 
" Moffes " with great diligence. It has 
been obferved before, that he had extended, 
his refearches into this part of nature, much 
further than any preceding botanift, having 
been the firft difcoverer of a great number 
of fpecies, and having feparated thofe here-^ 
tofore defcribed together by the general 
term Mufciis^ into feveral genera^ under the 
names of Sphagminty Fonttnalis^ Bryumy and 
Hypnum ^ taking his diftinciions, as well 
from the habit of the plant, (to which the 
accurate Hal LER thought he paid too much 
regard,) as from the figure and lituation 
of that part of the frudification which is 
now 
