68 
HISTORY OF BOTAN Y. 
tion of the flower, and their orders he ascertained by the fruit, ' His 
system of reform principally consisted of the following points and 
topics : 
He divided all the plants, which were known to him, from the qua- 
lity of the flower (corollx) into classes, which his predecessors had 
limited by the fruit, and these classes he subdivided into orders. He 
arranged the genera by solid, distinflive marks, which he borrowed of 
the fruit; gave them fixed generical names, and placed the species, with 
their manifold variations, under the genera*. Thus, when tire lovers 
and professors of botany met with a flower or plant unknown to them, 
the guidance of this system enabled them to get acquainted with the 
class by the stru&urc of the flower, with the order by the quality of 
the fruit, and by the examination of both fruit and flower with the 
species, d his classification was of infinite -service, in affording uncom- 
mon aid to the memory and judgment t. His system also remained in 
general acceptance to the time of Linnaeus; and many learned men 
took pains to mend its defefts. 
While Tournefort was still dignified with the title of the oracle of 
botany, one of uis pupils made himself conspicuous by his heterodox in- 
genuity. Too soon, however, was he torn from the lap of the sciences 
to have ere&ed himself a throne upon the ruins of that of his master. 
* See Reformatio Botanices, Linn.eo proposha a ]. M. Reftelio, 1762; in Amoeni- 
tal. Acad. vol. vi. page 306. 
f The work which contains this system, is the master-piece of Tournefort, entituled 
Elemens de Botanique, ou Methode pour connoitrc les Plants. Paris, 1694, three vols. oftavo, 
and rendered afterwards more complete, under the title of Institutiones rci Herbaria. 
Paris, 1700, three vols. quarto. 
This 
