[ H3 ] 
proficiency in natural hibory ; and for bis offering 
himfelf to go upon an expedition, where he mud: for 
a long time, in very unhofpitable regions, not only 
forego all the accommodations of human life, but be 
frequently liable to the naileries ariling from hunger, 
cold, and the barbarous inhabitants. Of thefe dan- 
gers, to ufe our author’s own words, he was contempt 
tor ftrenuus , and continued feveral years upon the ex- 
pedition, fending from time to time to our author 
large collections and defcriptions of fuch natural bo- 
dies, as occurred to him. This excellent perfon, to 
the great grief of our author, and to the irretrievable 
lofs of natural hibory, died on his return home, after 
' having furmounted almob incredible difficulties. 
In digeding the plants of the work before us into 
elafles, our author lias followed the method of our 
worthy brother Profeffor Van Royen of Leyden, pub- 
lifhed in the Flora Leyaenfis pro dr emus. This excel- 
lent botanid confiders, that all plants may be ranged 
into twenty claffes ; and our author, in confequence 
of this fydem, has given five clades in his firb vo- 
lume, viz. thole which Van Royen intitlcs, Palma, 
Lilia, Gramina , Fhnentacea, and TJmbclliferrr j and 
three clades in the fecond volume, viz. Compofita, 
Aggregate, and Fricccca : the twelve remaining 
clades therefore are, I prefume, to be publifhed here- 
after. Our author follows Van Royen’s fydem, not 
as he thinks it a perfect one, but as it nearly ap- 
proaches to the order of nature ; and has great rela- 
tion to our countryman Mr. Ray’s method, to which 
our author had been accubomed ; and differs from it 
chiefly, inafmuch as it is more complete. Some al- 
lowance mud be made for cuftom. He does not 
<■ detract 
