METHOD OF TOURNEFORT. 
149 
If species of plants were described without any regular order, 
we could derive no pleasure, and very little advantage from the 
study of practical botany. If we wished to find out the name 
of a plant, we might be obliged to turn over the leaves of a large 
volume, without any rule to guide us in our search. 
The necessity of some kind of system was so apparent, that 
many attempts for the methodical arrangement of plants were 
made before the time of Linnaeus ; but his system was so supe- 
rior to all others, that it was no sooner published to the world, 
than it was adopted by the universal consent of all men of science. 
Previous to this time, Tournefort, a native of France, had 
published an ingenious method of arrangement, beautiful by its 
simplicity, but imperfect, on account of the vagueness of its ap- 
plication. Tournefort made twenty two classes; these he sub- 
divided into sections or orders. 
The characters of his classes were founded upon the absence, 
presence, and form of the corolla. 
The first seventeen classes contained herbs and shrubs ; the 
remaining ones contained trees. 
The first four classes had monopetalous corollas ; they were 
Bell-form, Funnel-form, Labiate, and Personate. 
The seven following classes contained the Cruciform , Rosa- 
ceous, Umbelliferous, Caryophyllous, Liliaceous, Papilionace- 
ous, and the Anomalous. 
The three following included the Compound flowers. 
The three next following, included ; 
1st. Plants having Stamens without a corolla. 
2d. Such as had no flo wer. 
3d. Such as had neither flower nor fruit. 
These were the first seventeen classes of Tournefort. 
Next followed his arrangement of large and small trees. 
The eighteenth and nineteenth classes were Apetalous , having 
corollas without petals, and Amentaceous, having flowers in a 
catkin ; as the chesnut and willow. 
The twentieth class contained such large and small trees as 
had monopetalous corollas. 
The twenty first and twenty second contained such large and 
small trees as had polypetalous corollas ; Rosaceous, as the ap- 
ple and lilac, or papilionaceous as the locust. 
Necessity of order in description — Attempts at arrangement made before 
the time of Linnaeus. 
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