ANECDOTES. 
282 
« The vegetable reign possessed the greatest charms for Linn^us ; 
u he bestowed upon it the best share of his time and abilities. When 
a he first appearedin thefieldof science in 1732, Tournefort’s system 
“ of botany derived from the structure of the inward cover of the 
“ flower, was every where popular and universally accepted. But during 
“ the latter part of its most flourishing epoch, a kind of barbarism was 
‘ c perceived in that system. A great number of new plants having been 
« discovered, it so happened that the characters of the inward cover of 
“ the flower proved insufficient to distinguish one from another with 
« plainness and regularity. Botanists began, therefore, to have recourse 
“ to the outward appearance, and to copper-plates, not without preju- 
.« dice to the certainty of the real system. 
“ Linn y? j soon perceived the error and its real foundation, in the 
o want of sufficient and did characters, which the inward cover of the 
s* flo' v could never have procured. He sought, therefore, a safer 
« basis for his system, and took at first the outward cover of the flower 
u to effeCt his purpose. But he found it equally insufficient. He ulti- 
u niately examined the Sex of the Plants, which had in some mea- 
“ sure been already known before him, though never used as a system. 
‘‘Upon these enquiries he built his Sexual System, which soon 
« met with universal approbation and spread itself throughout Europe. 
“ That he might render it the more firm and imperishable, he intro- 
u duced the natural characters of the genera, which he took from all 
“ the parts of fructification, and from which he obtained a great num- 
« ber of distinctive marks, which will never fail accurately to point 
“ out the genera. He demonstrated the true prim iples of a botanical 
system, introduced a solid, certain and definitive technology, and 
“ demon- 
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