NATURAL HISTORY, 
■I? ^2 
jecl to this variation, it has never experi- 
enced’ more- innovatton" than of Jate years : 
btit, notwithflanding vi'e lament tliis defi- 
ciency of (lability in botanical language, we 
are happy to find that, foinetimes, the alte- 
rations have been very judicious amendments 
ol terms faliely ufed by the ancients ; for 
the modern botanifts have named the plants 
(roin the parts which they contain ; while 
their predecelTors irave named them from 
(mtward appearance, or fuppofed qualities, 
'I'hus are the long terms, and denominations, 
which only perplexed the mind, and bur- 
dened the memory, abandoned. Conformab- 
ly to this improvement, Linnaeus propofes 
j'iniple and proper ttTins, to expnefs not only 
the diflerejit parts of plants, but, likewife, 
thetr forms, qualifies, fituations, diredions, 
and mode of e-xidence ol each part refpec- 
tively. 1 his method has, in general, been 
adopted by all iucceeding writers in this 
Icience. 
No method could be fo proper for clafling 
plants, as that adopted by Linnmus ; name- 
ly from their (exnal dilFerence, Ihis is 
mod natural, and lead iubjed to variation, 
(rom the diflerence being deferibed accord- 
ing to tile variation of the (lamina in the 
male, and the pointals in the female parts of 
a plant. 
According to modern botanids, plants are 
deferibed as confiding of (lx- parts: — the 
root, radix; the trunk, iruncus ; the (up- 
port, 
