* 9 o OF THE USE 
Europe, and therefore could be eafily kriownV 
and ranged. 
He that knows but a few plants gives cha^ 
rafters, which are eafy to find out, but are in* 
fufficient to fettle any thing ; and therefore 
tend to confound, rather than to advance know- 
ledge ; fo that the natural method is the 
ultimate end of our fyflematical inquiries. 
Without this all is a mere chaos, and if the 
knowledge of vegetables fails, all that ufe of 
them is gone, which the learned in this way 
might difcover to the great benefit of man- 
kind. 
It is true indeed that vegetables aft upon 
the human body by fmell, and tafte *, but thefe 
marks are not fufficient unlefs we know the 
> natural orders of plants. 
Thefe being known, and the vertues of 
feme vegetables being difcovered, we may go 
on fafely in the praftice of phyfic, otherwife not. 
It follows from hence, that he who defires 
to make any confiderable improvement in this 
branch of knowledge, muft endeavor to get 
acquainted with thofe plants, whofe ufe he does 
not know *, and thus he is obliged not to ne~ 
gleft the moft contemptible, e. g. no body 
was 
