& O T 
vulgar diftinCtion. In other refpe&s, it isalfo evident, that 
neither Mr. Ray’s plan nor execution is in any degree cal¬ 
culated to facilitate the,knowledge of plants. In fa£t, it 
l'eeins to have been Ray’s great object, no lefs than Mori- 
fion’s, to colleCt as many natural clafles as podible ; and 
thefe being feparately inveftigated, a multiplicity of cha¬ 
racters and (teps was neceflarily required to conneCt them : 
and hence the intricacy complained of in both thefe fyf- 
tems, which mult always take place where the dalles give 
rife to the connecting characters, and not the characters 
to the dalles. The characters of the orders, or fecondary 
divifions, in Ray’s method, are no lefs multifarious than 
thofe of the dalles. They refpeCt the place of growth of 
plants; their qualities; the figure of the Item ; the num¬ 
ber, fituation, fubltance, and divifion, of the leaves; the 
fituation and difpofition of the flowers and calyx ; the 
number and regularity of the petals ; with the number 
and figure of the fruit. In his improved method, Ray has 
adopted Tournefort’s characters of the genera, wherever 
his plan would permit.. His general Hiltory of Plants 
contains 18,655 fpecies and varieties. The third volume, 
which was not publifhed till 1704, apd was defigned as a 
fupplement to the two former, contains the plants difco- 
vered by Tournefort in the Levant, and by Camelli at 
Luzon, one of the Philippine illands. Ray’s method was 
followed by Sir Hans Sloane, in his Natural Hiltory of 
Jamaica; by Petiver, in his Britilh Herbal; by Dille- 
nius, in his Synoplis of Britilh Plants ; and by Martyn, 
in his Catalogue of Plants that grow in the neighbourhood 
of Cambridge. 
To Ray’s original method fuceeeded that of Chriftopher 
Knaut, a German ; which acknowledges the fame princi¬ 
ple, and is manifeitly founded upon it. In his enumera¬ 
tion of the plants that grow round Halle in Saxony, pub¬ 
lifhed in 1687, he divides vegetables into feventeen dalles, 
which have for their bafis the fize and duration of plants, 
the prefence or abfence of the petals, the difpofition of the 
flowers, the fubltance of the fruit, the number of cagfules 
or feeds, the number and figure of the petals, and the pre¬ 
fence, abfence, or figure, of the calyx. His clalfes are, 
x. Herbs berry-bearing. 2. Monopetalons, or with one 
flower-leaf. 3. Tetrapetalous and regular, with four pe¬ 
tals. 4. Tetrapetalous and irregular. 5. Pentapetalous, 
or with five petals. 6. Hexapetalous, or fix petals. 7. Po- 
iypetalous, or many petals. 8. Multicapfular, or many 
capfules. 9. Naked feeds. 10. Solid, or not downy. 
11. Downy feeds. 12. Without petals. 13. Stamineous, 
without petals or calyx. 14. Imperceptible. 15. Imper- 
fe£t. 16. Trees. 17. Shrubs. The feClions or fubdivi- 
fiqns of the clalfes in Knaut’s method are fixty-two in 
number ; and arife from the figure of the liem and petals, 
the number of capfules and cells, their figure, the num¬ 
ber of feeds and leaves, and fituation of the flowers. 
In 1696, a new method, propofed by Dr. Herman, pro- 
feffor of botany at Leyden, was publilhed by Zumbac, 
who arranged it according to the plants contained in the 
public garden of Leyden. Rudbeckius the younger, in a 
diflertation publilhed the fame year, on the fundamental 
knowledge of plants, adopted Herman’s method with a 
few inconfiderable variations. The clafles of Dr. Herman 
are twenty-five in number. They are founded on the fize 
and duration of the plants ; the prefence or abfence of the 
petals and calyx ; the number of capfules, cells, and na¬ 
ked feeds; the fubftance of the leaves and fruit; the form 
and confiftence of the roots; the fituation and difpofition 
of the flowers, leaves, and calyx ; and figure of the fruit. 
1. Herbs having one naked feed and a Ample flower. 2. 
Having one naked feed and a compound flower. 3. With 
two naked feeds, and flellated or ftar-fhaped. 4. Two na¬ 
ked feeds, and umbelliferous. 5., Four naked feeds and 
rough leaves. 6. Four naked feeds, and verticillated or 
whirl-lhaped. 7. With many naked feeds. 8. Having 
i'eed-velfels, bulbous and tricapfular. 9. Having one feed- 
veflel. 10. With two feed-veflels. xj. With three feed- 
veflels, *3. With four feed-veflels. 13. With five feed- 
A N Y. 291 
veflels. 14. Podded, which are always tetrapetalous. 15. 
Leguminous and papilionaceous. 16. With many cap¬ 
fules. 17. Having flelliy fruit, berry-bearing. 18. With 
flefliy fruit, apple-bearing. 19. Without petals, but hav¬ 
ing a calyx. 20. Without petals, chaffy, or ftaminous. 
21. Without petals, calyx, chalf, or ftarnma, i. e. a naked 
antherae, as the modes. 22. Trees with imperfect fructi¬ 
fication, bearing catkins. 23. Trees with a flefhy fruit 
umb’licated. 24. Trees with a flefliy fruit not umbilica- 
ted. 25. Trees with a dry fruit. The clafles in this me¬ 
thod are fubdivided into eighty-two fettions or orders; 
which have for their bafis the number of petals, feeds, 
capfules, and cells, the figure of the feeds and petals, and 
difpofition of the flowers. 
To the method of Dr. Herman fuceeeded that of Boer- 
haave, who filled the botanical chair of Leyden in 1709. 
His method is that of Herman, blended with part of the 
fyftems of Tournefort and Ray ; and contains the follow¬ 
ing clafles. 1. Herbs fubmarine, or fea plants. 2. Im- 
perfeCt land plants. 3. Capillary plants, or the fern kind. 
4. Many naked feeds. 5. Four naked feeds, and verticil¬ 
lated. 6. Four naked feeds, and rough leaves. 7. Four 
naked feeds, and four petals. 8. Plantshaving one feed- 
vell'el. 9. Two feed-veflels. 10. Three feed-velfels. 11. 
Four feed-veflels. 12. Five feed-veflels. 13. Many feed- 
veflels. 14. Two naked feeds, and umbelliferous. 15. 
Two naked feeds, and ftar-lhaped. 16. One naked feed, 
and a Ample flower. 17. One naked feed, and compound 
flowers femiflofculous. 18. One naked feed, and com¬ 
pound flowers radiated. 19. One naked feed, and com¬ 
pound flowers corymbiferous. 20. One naked feed, and 
Compound flowers flofculous. 21. Berry-bearing herbs. 
22. Apple-bearing herbs. 23. Without petals. 24. One 
cotyledon, and having petals. 25. One cotyledon, and 
without petals. 26. Trees having one cotyledon. 27. 
Many podded. 28. Podded. 29. Tetrapetalous and cru¬ 
ciform. 30. Leguminous. 31. Having no petals. 32. 
Bearing catkins. 33. Monopetalons flowers. 34. Rofa- 
ceous flowers.' 
Thefe thirty-four clafles of Dr. Boerhaave are fubdivi¬ 
ded into 104 (eCtions, which have for their characters, the 
figure of the leaves, Item, calyx, petals, and feeds ; the 
number of petals, feeds, and capfules; the fubftance of the 
leaves; the liquation of the flowers, and their difference 
in point of fex. By this method, Boerhaave arranged 
near 6000 plants, the produce of the botanical garden at 
Leyden, which he carefully fuperintended for the fpace of 
twenty years, and left to his fucceftbr, Dr. Adrian Royen, 
in a very flourilhing ftate. Boerhaave’s characters are de¬ 
rived from the habit or general appearance of plants com¬ 
bined with all the parts of fructification ; fo that, as Lin¬ 
naeus very juftly obferves, he was the firft who employed 
the calyx, ftamina, and ftyle, in determining the genus. 
About feventeen new genera were eftablifhed by this au¬ 
thor ; among others, the very fplendid family of the pro¬ 
tea and filver-tree, which, although partly deferibed by 
Morifon, had remained generally unknown till this period. 
His method was adopted by Emfting, a German, in a trea- 
tile intitled “The firft Principles of Botany,” publifhed 
in oCtavo at Wolfenbuttle, in 1748. 
Hitherto all the botanifts had been intent upon invefti- 
gating the nature of plants, rather than facilitating the ar¬ 
rangement of vegetables : therefore their methods were 
very intricate and perplexed ; and their writings, however 
entertaining to the learned, ctfuld afford but little inftruc- 
tion to the young botanift. In 1690, however, Auguftus 
Quirinus Rivinus, a German, profelfor of botany at Leip- 
fic, relinquilhing the purfuit of this method, and con¬ 
vinced of the infufficiency of charafteriftic marks drawn 
only from the fruit, attached himfelf to the flower, which, 
he was fenfible, would furniih characters no lefs nume¬ 
rous, permanent, and confpicuous, than thofe drawn from 
the fruit. The calyx, petals, ftamina, and ftyle,which 
conftitute the flower, are fufficiently diverfified in point of 
number, figure, proportion, and fituation, to ferve as the 
bafis 
