THE 
BRITISH HERBAL. 
C L A S S IX. 
Plants whofi flower confifls of five petals regular in form and difpofitkn, 
■whofe feeds are contamed in a single capsule, and whofe Laves grow 
in pairs. 
THIS is a Very large and numerous clafs ; nature has perfedly conriefted together the plants 
it comprehends, and obviouny diftingoimed them from all others : yet, as m other cafes, 
fo in thi. the modern method, eflablilhed folely upon the number ol threads, and their 
difpofition in the flower, has feparated many of them from the refl, and placed them among others 
with which they have no natural aUiance. , , r ■ A-r r a 
Nature is fo uniform, in even Irer fmalleft traces, that, m general, the e mmute parts are d.fpofed 
alike in plants of the fame clalTes ; but not univerfally. This general con orm.ty of the fmaller with 
the larger parts led Linn^us to imagine that a method might be eftablilhed on their number and 
difpofition, which would take in the larger, more obvious, and more elTenfal parts only as fubor- 
dinate ; and, as this would be fure to carry an air of novelty, it was natural to fuppole it would 
pleafc the (ludent, and do honour to the inventor. , , ■ , 
Had It proved true that nature was as flrift in thefe fmaller as in the larger parts, a method might, 
as ufefullyf have been founded on them as on the others : at leaft, it would have been liable to no 
other objeffion but that of being lefs plain and familiar : but when Linnaeus found that, though 
many of the plants in each natural clafs thus anfwered to the charaflers of his artificial ones, there 
were feveral that did not, he Ihould then have given up the defign. 
That he did find this is certain ; becaufe he has fet down innumerable inftances of it under th= 
name of exceptions to his generical charafters ■, and he will daily, in his caretul attention to the 
fubiea, find r^orei but, probably, he had gone too far to recede, before he difcovered that thek 
exceptions were fo numerous. It appears to me that he formed his charafters of 'he common plants 
principally from Tournefort's figures, and thofe of the more rare, in genera from thofe of Plumiej. 
Thefe fibres are excellent, and particularly accurate; but, although generally right in the minuteft 
carts, ye°t they fometimes vary from nature in them; their authors not having been fo carefu in 
thde lefler parts as they would have been, if. like LinniEus, they had intended to eftablilh a method 
"Thkfais to have been the foundation of LinnSEUs's fyftem : and when, in examining the 
Plants themlelves, he found they did not exaftly anfwer thefe figures, and his charafters eftablilhed 
upon them, he has, with candour equal to his difcernment and alliduity, let it down in his fucceed- 
iiis works. c - j 
Uoon this view of the Linna:an method, the reader will be able to form a proper judgment 
of it ; and not too difadvantageous a one of its author, whofe very faults have been accompanied 
'^'with'rdte'rto the plants of the prefcnt clafs, all that anfwer the charafter eftablilhed in few 
words, as its diftinftion, are here brought together. , ^ , . 
Mr Rav who forms a clafs of the fame kind, his pentcpetaU vafmhfer^, makes it more 
comprehenfive, for he includes in it all that anfwer to that name ; placing their other diftinftions 
as fubordinate : but, as we have fet out upon the plan of d.ftinguifhing the plants by as fuccinft affort- 
mmts as nature admits, we have of thefe made three clafles. 
N« lb. ^ •* 
