xxm 
PREFACE. 
farther than this is not barely a natura- 
lift, but fomething more, viz. aphyfician, 
a chymift, a farmer, a gardener, &c. 
And he who cannot go thus far to a cer- 
tain degree, does not deferve the name of a 
naturalift, however fkillfull he may be in 
the vertues and properties of bodies ani- 
mate and inanimate. 
The ufe then and intent of a claffical fyf- 
tem is nothing more than that of a dic- 
tionary, where no one complains that 
words totally unconnected in fenfe are put 
near one another. The queftion therefore 
as to the fexual fyftem d , v. g. in plants, is 
not whether they be ranged naturally, but 
whether in the beft manner poffible in order 
to be known. Nay farther, it matters not 
whether the fexual fyftem be founded on 
nature or not, i. e. whether there be any 
d At the end of the preface i have endeavored to ex- 
plain the meaning of thefe terms in fuch a manner, that 
i think any curious perfon that will be at the pains to 
compare my explication with nature, cannot fail to un- 
derhand perfectly what they mean in general. I thought 
this method would he more agreeable to the reader than 
to be referred to other books, 
a 4 
propagation 
