6 
INTRODUCTION. 
ffance ; it will encourage you perhaps, to purfue the track where the 
connection is much more obfcured by neceffary diftinCtions. 
CHAP. II. 
Of the true Characters of the Aggregate, and the 
Umbrella’d Plants. 
I T has been always feen, that the AJJembled Florets and the Um- 
brella d Clujlcr had a ftrong connection, though fomething very 
diffonant in form divided them : ’Tis thus truth will flalh upon the hu- 
man mind, even where its conftant light cannot thine freely. The re- 
lation in this cafe has been known, though the connection was not dis- 
covered j and that could not be till this Clafs of Aggregates was formed. 
It has been faid, that if the Florets of a Tubulate Flower, as T’anzy, 
were all raifed upon long Footftalks, it would become an Umbell, 
from a Clutter: this was a bold and not an injudicious thought j but 
it would fail in many things : for, I. The true etfence of an Umbell, 
though perhaps that has not been enough confidered, contitts in the 
Flowers being perfeCt, and their Footjlalks being fubdivided : unlefs 
each Flower has its Cup, it lofes its perfeCt nature, and becomes a 
Floret ; and unlefs there be a general and a partial divifion of Foottlalks, 
there is no Umbell. What has been called, by an error in terms, a 
Simple Umbell , is no more than an Aggregate with long Footjlalks. The 
AJlrantia and Statice. though hitherto placed in remote Claffes, differ 
in this refpeCt no otherwife than by a fomewhat greater length of 
Footftalk to each Flower in one than in the other. More or lefs, lon- 
ger or fhorter, make no diftinCtion between Species and Species ; much 
lefs between Clafs and Clafs : and it is no matter that the greatefl: 
names give fanCtion to fuch Umbells. The modern fyftems have no 
fuch Clafs as Aggregates, for the received method does not admit of 
their dftinCtions as a character ; but in truth and nature. Scabious 
has as much right as Aftrantia to be called an Umbelliferous Plant. 
In 
