and Will continue fo upwards of fix months after, if the 
charadters of the order and genus have been made to de¬ 
pend on any part of the flower. Methods founded on the 
fruit, have another inconvenience ; plants conftantly ripen 
their fruit in thofe countries where they grow naturally, 
but not always in the countries to which they may be ac¬ 
cidentally tranfported. So far from this, many plants that 
are natives of a warm climate, neither ripen nor form fruit 
in a cold one. -Few of the African, Aliatic, and Weft- 
Indian, plants, produce fruit in Britain. A method, 
therefore, founded upon the fruit, could only facilitate 
the knowledge of fuch plants to be inhabitants of thofe 
countries where they grow : to the Englifh botanifl they 
could be of little or no fervice. The fame objedtion can¬ 
not reafonably be urged againft methods founded on the 
flower, fince the influence of climates much colder than 
that of Britain, has not been able to deflroy the faculty of 
producing flowers in moll, if not in all, the plants juft 
mentioned. 
Caefalpinus fets out with an ancient diftindtion of vege¬ 
tables, from their duration, into trees and herbs. With the 
former he combines fhrubs; with the latter, under-ftmibs : 
and lie diftributes his plants into the fifteen following 
dalles, i. Trees with the germen (radicle or principle 
of life in the feed) on the point of the feed. 2. Trees 
with the germen on the bafe of the feed. 3. Herbs hav¬ 
ing one feed onl)\ 4. Herbs having tw'o feeds. 5. Herbs 
having four feeds. 6. Herbs having many feeds. 7. Herbs 
having one grain or kernel. 8. Herbs having one capfule. 
9. Herbs having two capfules. 10. Herbs having fibrous 
roots. 11. Herbs having bulbous roots. 12. Herbs hav¬ 
ing fuccory or endive-like flowers. 13. Herbs having com¬ 
mon flowers. 14. Herbs having feveral follicles or feed- 
bags. 15. Herbs having neither flower nor feed. 
The inconveniences of this method have been in part 
pointed out already, and will more evidently appear upon 
an attempt to refer any common plant to one of the fifteen 
above-mentioned dalles. His lections, orders, or fecon- 
dary divifions, are forty-feven in number, and depend upon 
a variety of parts and circumltances. The principal of 
ihefe are, the difpofition, fituation, and figure, of the flow¬ 
ers ; the nature of the feed-veflel, or cover of the feeds; 
the fituation of the radicle in the feed ; the number of feed- 
lobes, or feminal leaves ; the difpofition of the leaves, and 
colour of the flowers. The ladtefcence too, or milkinefs, 
which is obferved in the compound flowers with flat florets, 
is made a charadteriftic diftindtion, and difcriminates the 
firft order of the twelfth clafs. Thus, in the firft fyftema- 
tic arrangements, the charadters of the dalles only were 
borrowed from the parts of frudtification ; while thofe of 
the fuballern divifions w'ere very numerous, and relpeded 
every part of the plant ; but that fuch divifions might be 
perfed, they fhould be conftituted, like the claffes, from 
die modifications of a fingle part of the fluidification. 
The great objed bad in view by Morifon, who comes 
next in order to Caefalpinus, was to inveftigate the order 
of nature, not to fabricate an eafy method of arranging 
plants. Hence his fyftem is devoid of uniformity, and 
dogged with a multiplicity of charaders; his dalles are 
frequently not fufficiently diftinguiflied from one another, 
and the key of arrangement feems totally loft. He fets 
out with a divifion of plants, from their confidence, into 
ligneous or woody, or herbaceous. He founds his fyftem 
on the fruit, the corollte or blolToms, and the habit of the 
plants. His dalles are as follow : 1. Trees. 2. Shrubs. 
3. Under-flirubs. 4. Herbs climbing. 5. Herbs legumi¬ 
nous or papilionaceous. 6. Herbs podded. 7. Herbs tri- 
capfular or with three capfules. 8. Herbs with four or 
five capfules. 9. Herbs corymbiferous. 10. Herbshav¬ 
ing a milky juice, or downy tops. 11. Herbs culmiferous, 
as grades. 12. Herbs umbelliferous. 13. Herbs having 
three kernels. 14. Herbs having helmet-ftiaped flowers. 
13. Herbs having many capfules. 16. Herbs berry-bear¬ 
ing. 17. Herbs called capillary plants, as the fern kind. 
1%. Anomalous or irregular herbs. Of thefe daffies, the 
i 
ANY. 
fourth and eighth poflefs no genuine diftindive charader; 
nor are the ninth and tenth fufficiently diftinguiflied; the 
fifteenth clafs is not fufficiefiVly diftinguiflied from the 
eighth, nor the lixteenth from the fourth. His fedions or 
fecondary divifions, which are one hundred and eight in 
number, arife from the figure and fubftance of the fruit; 
the number of feeds, leaves, and petals ; the figure of the 
root; the diredion of the Item ; the colour of the flowers; 
the place of grow th ; and, in one clafs, from the medicinal 
virtues of feme of the plants that compofe it. 
In 1682, our eminent countryman Ray, propofed his 
method to the world, two years afterThe publication of 
Morifon’s, w hich ferved in fome meafure as its bafis. It 
confifted originally of the following twenty-five claffes : 
I. Trees. 2. Shrubs. 3. Herbs impeded. 4. Herbs 
having, no flowers. 5. Capillary plants. 6. Staminous 
herbs, having only the (lamina. 7. Thofe having one 
naked feed. 8. Umbelliferous herbs. 9. Verticillated, 
annular, or ring-fliaped ones. 10. Rough-leaved plants. ' 
II. Stellated or ftar-fliaped ones. 12. Apple-bearing herbs. 
13. Berry-bearing herbs. 14. Herbs having many pods. 
15. Monopetalous uniform, or regular herbs. 16. Mono- 
petalous irregular, or having different forms. 17. Tetra- 
petalous, having large pods. 18. Tetrapetalous, having 
final 1 pods. 19. Papilionaceous. 20. Pentapetalous herbs. 
21. Corns. 22. Grades. 23. Grafs-leaved plants. 24. 
Bulbous-rooted plants. 25. Plants near akin to the bul¬ 
bous. This method Ray carefully correded and amended 
at different times; fo that the plan of arrangement which 
now bears the name of that author, and was firft publifhed 
in 1700, is entirely different from what had appeared in 
1682. It now con lifts of thirty-two claffes. Their diftin- 
guifhing marks are taken from the habit of the plants; 
their greater or lefs degree of perfedion ; their place of 
growth ; the number of feed-lobes, or feminal leaves, pe¬ 
tals, capfules, and feeds; the fituation and difpofition of 
the flowers, flower-cup; and leaves ; the abfence or pre¬ 
fence of the buds, flower-cup, and petals; the fubftance 
of the leaves and fruit ; and the difficulty of claffing cer¬ 
tain plants. They are as follow : 1. Submarine, or fea- 
plants. 2. Fungi. 3. Modes. 4. Capillary plants. 5. 
Thofe without petals. 6. Planipetalae, or thofe with com¬ 
pound flowers; femiflofculous, or half-florets. 7. Thofe 
with compound flowers radiated. 8. Thofe with com¬ 
pound flowers, flofculous, or with whole florets. 9. Plants 
with one feed. 10. Plants umbellated. 11. Thofe ftel- 
lated or ftar-fliaped. 12. Rough-leaved plants. 13. Plants 
verticillate or whirled. 14. Thofe with many feeds. 
15. Apple-bearing herbs. 16. Berry-bearing herbs. 17. 
Thofe with many pods. 18. Monopetalous herbs. 19. 
Thofe with two and three petals. 20. Thofe with great 
and filial 1 , or long and Ihort, pods. 21. Leguminous- 
plants. 22. Pentapetalous.ones. 23. Bulbs, and bulbous- 
like plants. 24. Stamindous ones, or thole having only 
the (lamina. 25. Anomalous plants, or thofe of an un¬ 
certain family. 26. The palms. 27. Trees without pe¬ 
tals. 28. Trees with an umbilicated fruit. 29. Trees 
with fruit not umbilicated. 30. Tfees with a dry fruit. 
31. Trees with podded fruit. 32. Anomalous, or irre¬ 
gular trees. 
The diftindtion into herbs and trees with which Ray’s 
method fets out, acknowledges a different, though not 
more certain, principle than that of Caefalpinus and Mo¬ 
rifon. The former, in making this diftindtion, had an eye 
to the duration of the Item ; the latter, to its confidence. 
Ray called in the buds as an auxiliary ; and denominates 
trees, “ all fuch planfs as bear buds;” herbs, “ luch as: 
bear none.” But againft this auxiliary thye lies an un- 
anfvverable objedtion ; namely, that though all herbaceous 
plants rife without buds, yet all trees are not furnilhed. 
with them : many of the largelt trees in warm countries, 
and forrte Ihrubby plants in every country, being totally 
deftitute of that fcaly appearance which conftitutes the 
eff’ence of a bud. Hence it is obvious, that Nature has 
put no limits between a tree and a Ihrub, which is only a 
vulg<j# 
