120 
The vegetable SYSTEM. 
ill light that dlftlndtlon which has been eftablillied in a Genus fome-. 
what allied to this, from the erect pofition, or the divergence of the 
Seeds. 
This new Genus will prove of great ufe in the formation of a 
Natural Method ; the lamented Defideratum in Botany, and 
the great end and aim of our prefent undertaking. 
In: that method, the progrels of which keeps conftant, though not 
equal, pace v.’ith this our artificial Index, we (hall, fo far as our 
limited Faculties may be capable, and the due humility of our nature 
may dcvoutlv authorize, endeavour to enter into the idea of the great 
Creator when he made the multitude of Plants; and to arrange them 
in the courfe wherein they follow one another, according to the order 
of their formation. 
In this method, fo far as our feeble powers and imperfedt know- 
ledge may enable us to proceed, we fliall find the Genera ofPlants- 
following one another in a true regularity; not as imaginary or ar- 
bitrary marks diflinguifh them, but as the feveral kinds rile above 
each other by fome additional part, or new organization : and between 
each, to fill the imagined gap, for nature makes none real between 
Genus and Genus, we (hall always find either by newly difeovered 
Species, or by a better obfervation of the old, fome Plant which par- 
takes as it were of the nature and characters of both ; fianding upon 
the confines of either teritory, and leading, without dil'union from 
one to the other. 
One ofthefe Frontier Plants is our Gcmella : and it may not 
be amifs to give a fketch of what is purpol'cd to be done hereafter 
throughout all Vegetable Nature in the prefent inftance. 
We knew before, I. a Genus Bidens, whofe Cup is formed of a 
Jingle row of Scales, under which there (lands a Circlet ofleajy Jilms. 
II. A Genus Coreopsis in which the Cup has two rows of diftant 
Scales, from a fle(hy Bafe, the outer fomewhat leafy, and III. A 
Genus Silphium, in which the two-row’d Cup lofcs in great part 
its flefhy Bafe, and the outer row of Scales is perfedlly leafy. Now 
it is evident that the gradation from the (econd to the third of thefe is 
natural and eafy ; but it had not appeared before that there was any 
conne<ftion between thefe two and the firfi, whofe Cup is truly 
fimple. Here we have the Frontier Plant between the Bidens and the 
‘ _ Coreopfis i 
t 
