The vegetable SYSTEM. 
5S 
Here then is one immenfe improvement : the following, his dif- 
tindlion of Species, is fully equa] to it ; but with this remarkable dif- 
ference, that here our Author had no afliftance ; for no writer before 
him gave a true fpecific character. The different colours of Flowers, 
the Country the Plants came from, as Didtamnus Montis Sypili ; the 
names of their ftifl difcoverers, as Samolus Valerandi the fitua- 
tion they were found in, as Eryngium Montanum, 6cc. the vague 
words of Major, Minor, See. as Gentaurium majus and minus, were 
the only terms made ufe of to deferibe the Species. Bauhine, Ray, 
and older writers gave indeed long deferiptions in their natural Hif- 
tories of each Plant ; but thefe cannot be called fpecific charadters : 
Linnaeus alone has the honour of firft framing them ; and they are 
made with great penetration : I cannot fay they are equal to his Ge- 
nera, the thing will not admit of it ; a new Species will often make 
fome alteration in thofe deferibed before : befides, who has feen all 
the fpecies he deferibes ? much muff be taken on truft, and we are 
often led into error by very able men. 
I INDEED wifh that LinNjEus had joined a fhort account of the 
habit and manner of growing, place of the Flowers, &c. of each 
Species ; two or three Lines would have been fufficient, and it was 
the more neceffary, as he has mixed Trees and Herbs. However, 
in his new Species Plantar um, he adds a mark to diffinguifh an- 
nual, perennial, and fhrubby Plants. 
Plumier has been equally remifs ; and neither Boerhaave nor 
Tournefort have given us a defeription of the Habits of Plants. 
If to all thefe improvements of Linnaeus v/e add the many new 
parts of Vegetables he has deferibed, (for I muff call thofe fo that 
no one formerly regarded) as the Nedfarium, the Stigma, the Con- 
ceptaculum j the fixing a determined fenfe to the terms Valves, Cells, 
and many other parts of the Fructification, that were hardly ever 
ufed to fignify the fame thing before him ; the accurate divilions of 
the Buds, Leaves, Branches, &c. I fay, if all thefe, and many more 
excellent things that occur in his numerous Volumes are examined, 
we (hall not be thought to negleCt the living or do injuftice to the 
dead 
