B O 'T 
athers will probably al Tome future period be turned to 
good account. 
Appendix. PALM/E, or PALMS. 
The order of Palmre comprehends fuch plants as have 
a Jpadix and fpatha ; and confifis of nine genera, viz. Cha- 
mterops, dwarf palm, or palmetto; Boraffus, palmaira- 
tree, or fan palm ; Corypha, mountain palm ; Cocos, co¬ 
coa-nut tree ; and Elaeis. Tliefe five genera, are by the 
new arrangement, removed into the elafs Hexandria. 
Phoenix, common palm, or date-tree ; and Elate, wild 
Malabar paint; both removed into the clafs Triandria. 
Areca, cabbage-tree ; now in the clafs Enneandria ; and 
Caryota ; removed to the clafs Polyandria.,' To thefe, fe- 
'veral new genera have been lately added ; all of which are 
fully defcribed under their refpeCtive names in the body 
of the work ; and for an illuftration of the fructification in 
this order of plants, fee the article Borassus, p. 209, of 
this volume, with the beautiful engraving of the Palmaira- 
tree, taken front Dr. Roxburgh’s elegant collection of Plants 
natives of the coaftof Coromandel.—For more concerning 
this order, fee the article Palm-E. 
Thus have we conducted the young botanift through all 
the Clafl’es and Orders of the Sexual Syhem of Linnaeus, 
and carefully noted the alterations and changes it has un¬ 
dergone fince his time; particularly the abolition of his 
20th, 21 ft, 22d, and 23d, clalTes, which, as we have feen, 
are now carried into other parts of the fyftem. This new 
arrangement, however, though pretty much the vogue, 
is not followed by Profelfor Martyn in his new and valu¬ 
able edition of Miller’s Botanical Dictionary ; nor, by Dr. 
Roxburgh, in the magnificent work he is now publishing, 
under the aufpices of the honourable Eafl India Company. 
Another botanical production, which bids fair to merit 
public regard, is announced by Dr. Thornton, who pro- 
pofes to reduce theclalfesof Linnaeu.sinto twelve, and w holly 
to new-model his genera. Without meaning to caft any 
imputation upon the plan, we only hope it may not prove 
an additional fhunbling-block in the way of a learner, al¬ 
ready too much embarraffed by the rage for multiplying 
fyftems, the whole of w hich he mul have to.learn, before 
he can be (aid to underhand the fcience. The inconve- 
. nienceot fanciful and arbitrary arrangements we (hall now 
endeavour to demonhrate, by bringing into the reader’s 
view a fuccinCt narration of the ancient methods of chiding 
vegetables, and of the numerous imperfeCt fyllems that 
were in ufe, before the fexiial hypothelis was adopted ; all 
of which the botanical (Indent nnift of necefilty be ac¬ 
quainted with, before he can properly underhand the dif¬ 
ferent botanical writers, or appreciate the merits and im¬ 
provements of Linnaeus. 
Of the VARIOUS BOTANICAL SYSTEMS. 
In the commencement of this treatife, we briefly enu¬ 
merated the inoh celebrated botanical writers in the an¬ 
cient fchool. It will there be feen, that Theophrahus 
among the Greeks, and Diofcorides among the Romans, 
were the molt eminent for their fcientific dihinCtions. 
Theophrahus firh allotted feven obvious dihinguifhing 
characters to vegetables, viz. the generation of plants ; 
their place of growth ; their fize, as trees and (hrubs : 
their ufe, as pot-herbs and efeulent grains; and their lac- 
tefcence, or liquor, that flows from them when cut. Di¬ 
ofcorides afterwards divided thefe into aromatics, alimen¬ 
tary, medicinal, and vinous, plants. The good properties 
of this method are, that the botanih comes to the point 
at once; and, when he knows the plant, knows its vir¬ 
tues and ufes, or at lead part of them : but this conve¬ 
nience is-greatly overbalanced by innumerable difadvan- 
tages ; for the qualities and virtues of plants are not fixed 
and invariable ; neither are they impreffed in legible cha¬ 
racters on the plants themfelves. The different parts of 
a plant often pofiefs different and even oppofite qualities-; 
fo that fuppoling the virtues to be known, and applied to 
the purpofe of vegetable arrangement, the roots muh fre¬ 
quently fall under one divifion, the leaves under a fecond, 
„ Vol. 111. No. 131. 
ANA. 7.89 
and the flower and fruit under a third. Befides, if we re¬ 
flect that tlie fol.e end of fuch arrangement is to facilitate 
the knowledge of plants to others, the infufficiency and 
even abfurdity of methods founded upon their virtues wiTl 
immediately appear. A halk of vervain, for inhance, i , 
prelented to us, which we are to invehigate from .i pro- 
iuppofed knowledge of the virtues of plants. Before we 
can fetile the clafs to which it belongs, we muh difeover 
whether or not it has the virtues belonging to any of tlie 
plants we previoufly know ; 3nd this dif'eovery being the 
refult of repeated experiments on various parts of the hu¬ 
man body, may require many years for its accomplifhment. 
1 he fame caufes which render methods founded on the 
virtues or plants unfavourable for the purpofe of invehi- 
gation, muh evidently difqualify all their other variable 
quantities and qualities from having a place in a genuine 
fyfiematic arrangement. T'he natale folum of plants, which 
is one of Theophrahus’s divifions, affords no better dif- 
tindtive characters than their powers and virtues. Many 
countries as well as many foils produce the fame individual 
plants. Tlie fame fpecies which crown the mountains, 
frequently cover the fens ; and plants which have long 
been conlidered as the peculiar inhabitants of fome parts 
of Aha and America, are now found to grow naturally in 
equal perfection in the very different climates of Lapland 
and Siberia. The fize of plants,'which fuggefted the an¬ 
cient divifion into trees and (hrubs, is no lels an equivocal 
mark of dihinCtion than the circumftances already men¬ 
tioned. The vine, which modern botanifis denominate a 
flirub, was ranged by Theophrahus in his third clafs con¬ 
taining trees. In faCt, every tiling refpeCting fize is fo 
much affeCted by difference of foil, climate, and culture, 
that the fame plant, in different eircumhances, (hall differ 
exceedingly in height; and in a method founded upon the 
fize, would fometimes be ranged as a tree, and fonietimes 
as a fhrub, or even an under-lhrub, accordingas it happens 
to exceed, equal, or fall (hort of, a given ftandard. No 
lefs infufficient are characterihical marks drawn from the 
colour, tahe, and fmell, of plants. Of all the attributes 
of vegetable nature, colour, as we have already feen, is 
perhaps the moh inconffant. Heat, climate, culture, foil, 
&c. contribute to the production of endlefs diverfities of 
colour, and render the tranfition from one to another na¬ 
tural and eafy. Red and blue pafs ealily into white, white 
into purple, yellow into white, red into blue, blue into 
yellow, &c. Thefe confiderations are abundantly fuff,- 
cient to (hew the imperfections of the earlier fyffems of 
botany ;• and, indeed, confidering the vague and uncertain 
marks by which the ancients dihinguifhed one plant from 
another, we may rather wonder how fuch a fcience came 
to have an exihence among them, Than that they arrived 
at no greater perfection in it, or fuifered it fo foon to fall 
into oblivion. 
The virtues and colour of plants being thus found an 
infufficient charaCterihic, fucceeding botanifis had taken 
in the root, hem, and leaves ; but thefe being alfo found 
infufficient and variable, Gefner turned his eye to the 
flower and fruit, as being the moh permanent and un ¬ 
changeable parts of the plant. In propofing the parts of 
fructification, however, as the moh proper for arranging 
plants, he communicated no hints refpeCting the choice of 
fome of thole parts in preference to others. Each parti¬ 
cular organ of the flower and fruit furnifhes fufficient va¬ 
riety to ierve as the foundation of a method ; but all of 
them are not equally proper for this purpofe. Cefalpinus, 
the firh follower of Gefner, made a mihake in his choice, 
and took his dihinguifhing charaCterihics only from the 
fruit. The parts of the flower, therefore, being employed 
by the firh fyfiematic writers only as fubaltern directions 
in finding out orders and genera, it is evident that the 
plant could not be fully invehigated for feveral months. 
Suppofe a plant ripens its fruit in OCtober, and does not 
produce flowers till the following May: the'clafs, upon 
infpeCtion of the fruit in the month of OCtober, is imme¬ 
diately afeertained; but the plant hill remains unknown, 
4 E and 
