( 8i ) 
fimple, which perhaps ought to have ex> 
eluded them from this clafs ; but as they 
agree with the compound flowers in the eflen- 
tial character of the united anthers, Linneus 
has placed them ih it ; and as the principle 
of the iyftem on which he has founded his 
claries does not pretend to make them natural, 
there is not, perhaps, any great objection to 
his having done fo ; and while we receive fo 
much; amufement from his arrangement of 
the vegetable kingdom, we are bound to look 
with candour upon any fmall defects which 
may appear in k. His life was fpent in labo- 
rious refearch into natural hifiory, by which 
the botanical world has been fo materially 
benefited, that it ought at leaft to pay the 
tribute of gratitude to his memory. How- 
ever, gratitude is not exclullvely due to him ; 
much was done by his predeceffors ; and both 
amufement and inftruction may be derived 
from the ingenious fyftem of Tournefort ; 
but at prefent we are to think only of Lin- 
neus as our great matter. The characters of 
the orders of the clafs Syngenefia. United An- 
i thers, are too complex to retain in the mind 
without having examined fome flowers be- 
longing to them. The pupil fliould therefore 
G colled 
