INTRODUCTION. 
19 
I have always been opposed to the Linnean 
system and its blunders ; but the natural me- 
thod has had so long, and has perhaps yet, so 
many anomalies, that unless they are rectified, 
the study of affinities will be impeded. Jus- 
sieu had a crowd of genera incerta sedis , or 
annexed to orders without belonging thereto, 
which were a Dedalus of ambiguity. The mo- 
dern Decandole, Richard, Lindley, Agardh 
have partly improved this Labyrinth ; but the 
clue to guide us is now in our hands ! Let 
every genus that does not agree in general 
frame and characters be removed, and placed 
elsewhere, as I have done. When this is done 
and generally adopted we may hope to reach a 
perfect classification : while that of Lindley for 
instance, is as yet quite loose and inaccurate, 
as bad as Adanson or Necker’s; since one 
fourth of his genera do not agree to the com- 
mon characters ascribed, and some orders have 
none at all . . . 
This is the ambiguity and absurdity carried 
from Species and Genera to the National Or- 
ders ! unless restricted or exploded in all in- 
stances, we can have no correct nomenclature 
nor classification. What absurdity to have an 
order without definition , like the patched genera 
Gentiana and Convallaria for instance ! a 
false definition that does not apply to all 
the Genera or Species, is equal to no definition 
at all . . 
Our North American Botanists were very 
late in noticing the natural method, and even 
now hardly admit of it, or else without restric- 
tion on its defects. From 1802 to 1804 I was 
perhaps the only one that followed that new 
path, Barton, Muhlenberg, and others of that 
