Vlll 
PREFACE. 
plants by those organs that appear to be analogous in their 
functions to the sexual organs of animals. Assuming the 
flowering of plants to be what he poetically terms their 
nuptials, he likened each separate flower to a bridal cham- 
ber, and formed his primary divisions from the number of 
the male organs present in each flower, and his subdivisions 
were formed from the number of the female organs which 
were also present in the same chamber : the Omniscient 
Creator having lessened the chances of failure arising from 
the immobility of plants by multiplying the points of union, 
and increasing the number of the organs, especially of the 
male. As Linnaeus considered not only the number of 
these organs, but in many cases their situation, connection, 
and proportion, he has departed from the simplicity which 
ought to form the basis of an artificial system and was so 
strictly observed by Rivinus, and has rendered his system 
as intricate as some of those who endeavoured to place 
kindred plants together. His successor in the chair at 
Upsal, Thunberg, has therefore endeavoured to simplify 
his method, but with considerable opposition. While 
Ludwig, in the second edition of his Genera, and Hill, 
along with the primary divisions of Rivinus taken from the 
corolla employed those of Linnaeus for their subdivisions, 
but have not met with any followers. 
The novelty of the Linnaean method, the distinction of 
the species being always taken from the variations to be 
observed in the plant itself, together with the industry of 
Linnaeus and his followers in extending his catalogue, and 
forming, as it were, a new science, that of the nomenclature 
of plants, instead of the old botany, which, as we have said, 
principally devoted itself to the uses of plants, all contributed 
to give an eclat to his system, and to extend its influence 
beyond its proper limits. So that instead of being taught 
to use this method only as a finder, or as an index to the 
authors who wrote on the natural history of plants, the 
student was led to believe that this was the only arrange- 
ment that ought to be adopted in all works that treat of 
