In the utmost extent of the word, signifies a knowledge of plants, and of the uses to which they may be applied, either in medicine, chemistry, or in the different arts.—But as the medical virtues of plants fall properly under the province of the physician, their chemical properties belong to the chemist, &c.; hence the science of botany is commonly restricted to a bare knowledge of the different plants themselves, and of the distinguishing marks whereby each individual species may be known from every other. This knowledge is indispensible necessary for those who propose to apply plants to any useful purpose; for example, though we should suppose a physician ever so well acquainted with the virtues of opium, and a chemist ever so well acquainted with the method of preparing it, yet if both of them were entirely ignorant of botany, so as to be unable to distinguish the particular species of poppy which produces opium from others of the same genus, it is evident their medicinal and chemical skill could be of no use.

The utility of botanical classifications may be further illustrated from the following considerations.

1. With regard to Food. Many animals are endowed with an instinctive faculty of distinguishing with certainty whether the food presented to them be salutary or noxious. Mankind have no such instinct. They must have recourse to experience and observation. But these are not sufficient to guide us in every case. The traveller is often allured by the agreeableness of smell and taste to eat poisonous fruits. Neither will a general caution not to eat anything but what we know from experience to be salutary, answer in every emergency. A ship's company, in want of provisions, may be thrown upon an uninhabited coast or a desert island. Totally ignorant of the nature of the plants they meet with, diseases, or scarcity of animals, may make it absolutely necessary to use vegetable food. The consequence is dreadful; they must first eat before any certain conclusion can be formed. This is not the description of danger arising from an imaginary situation. Before the vegetables that grow in America, the East and West Indies, &c. became familiar to our sailors, many lives were lost by trials of this kind: neither has all the information received from experience been sufficient to prevent individuals from still falling a prey to ignorance or rashness.—If the whole science of botany were as complete as some of its branches, very little skill in it would be sufficient to guard us infallibly from committing such fatal mistakes. There are certain orders and classes which are called natural, because every genus and species comprehended under them are not only distinguished by the same characteristic marks, but likewise possess the same qualities, though not in an equal degree. For example: Shew a botanist the flower of a plant whose calyx is a double valved glume, with three stamens, two pistils, and one naked seed; he can pronounce with absolute certainty, that the plant from which the flower was taken, bears seeds of a farinaceous quality, and that they may be safely used as food. In like manner, shew him a flower with 12 or more stamens all inserted into the internal side of the calyx, tho' it belonged to a plant growing in Japan, he can pronounce without hesitation, that the fruit of it may be eaten with safety. On the other hand, shew him a plant whose flower has five stamens, one pistil, one petal, or flower-leaf, and whose fruit is of the berry kind, he will tell you to abstain from it, because it is poisonous. Facts of this kind render botany not only a respectable, but a most interesting, science.

2. With respect to Medicine, the same thing holds good. It is found by experience, that plants which are distinguished by the same characters in the flower and fruit, have the same qualities, though not always in an equal degree as to strength or weakness; so that, upon inspection of the flower and fruit, a botanist can determine a priori the effects that will result when taken into the stomach. In order, therefore, to determine the medical virtues of all the plants belonging to a natural class, the physician has nothing to do but to ascertain by a set of clear and unquestionable experiments, the virtues of any one of them. This greatly shortens the labour of investigation. Supposing the number of known species to be 20,000; by ascertaining the virtues of one genus, at a medium, you determine the virtues of 12 species. But by ascertaining the virtues of one genus belonging to a natural order, the virtues of perhaps 300 or 400 species are ascertained.

Sect. I. History of Botany.

The origin of this science, like that of most others, cannot be found out from the most ancient histories; but it is very probable, that some degree of botanical knowledge has existed in every age of the world. The first botanical writings of which we have any account are those of Solomon, who we are informed by scripture did write a treatise upon this subject; but that is absolutely lost, not being quoted by any ancient author, nor the least fragment of the treatise itself remaining. Among the Greeks, Anaxagoras, Pythagoras, and other ancient philosophers, wrote treatises on plants; but their works are also lost; and from the quotations that yet remain in the works of Theophrastus, Dioscorides, and Pliny, we learn, that those first botanical writings could convey but very little knowledge.

The historical era of botany, therefore, commences with Theophrastus the disciple of Aristotle. He was born at Eresium, in the island of Lesbos; and flourished in the third century before the Christian era, being about 100 years posterior to Hippocrates. His work is entitled The History of Plants, and treats of their origin, propagation, anatomy, and construction; of vegetable life, and of vegetation. It consisted originally of ten books; but of these only nine are now extant. In these, vegetables are distributed into seven classes or primary divisions; which have for their object, the generation of plants; their place of growth; their size as trees and shrubs; their use as pot herbs and esculent grains; and their lactescence, or the liquor of whatever colour, that flows from plants when cut. In his work, about 500 different plants are described. The next botanist of any note was Dioscorides, a Grecian by birth, but under the Roman empire, being near near 400 years posterior to Theophrastus. He describes about 600 plants; and these he has arranged, from their uses in medicine and domestic economy, into four classes, which are thus designed: aromatics; alimentary vegetables, or such as serve for food; medicinal, and vinous plants.

Almost contemporary with Dioscorides flourished Antonius Musa, Cato, Varro, Virgil, and Columella; the first, author of a treatise still extant on the plant betony; the four others celebrated for their useful treatises on agriculture and rural economy.

Pliny the Elder, in his voluminous work intitled The History of the World, hath a botanical part which is contained in 15 books. In these, besides the plants of Theophrastus and Dioscorides, he has given descriptions of several new species, extracted probably from works which would otherwise have been totally lost. Pliny uses scarce any mode of arrangement, except the ancient, but very incorrect, distinction into trees, shrubs, and herbs. His plan, however, extends not only to botanical distinctions, but to gardening, agriculture, and whatever is connected either more nearly or remotely with the science of plants. He gives descriptions of above 1000 different species; but from the want of a proper systematic arrangement, it is often difficult, and perhaps impossible, to determine what plants he or other ancient botanists do really describe.

This want of precision in properly arranging their plants was the reason why the botany of the ancients was always very limited, and after the time of Pliny declined so rapidly. On the destruction of the western empire by the Goths and other barbarous nations, it is not to be thought that botany could survive any more than the other sciences. It was not till near the close of the eighth century, that the ancient botany began again to appear in Arabia. Serapion, well known in medicine, bands first in the Arabian catalogue of botanists; to him succeeded Razis, Avicenna, Averrhoes, Actuarius, &c. An author known by the name of Plato Apuleius, or Apollinari, of whose herbarium very old manuscript copies are preserved in some curious libraries, is supposed to have lived near this period. The works of most of these botanists, however, were only translations and compilations from the Greek writers; so that, for want of a proper systematic arrangement, the science sunk a second time into total oblivion. For near 400 years after Abenguefus, an Arabian physician who flourished in the end of the 12th century, scarce any attempts were made in the botanical way. Some obscure writers indeed appeared in several parts of Europe; as, Arnoldus de Villa Nova; Platearius; Matthaeus Sylvaticus; and Bartholomew Glanvil, commonly called Bartholomeus Anglicus, a Franciscan monk, descended of the family of the earls of Suffolk, who lived in the reign of King Edward III. and wrote a book of natural history, intitled De proprietatibus rerum, which was translated into English by John de Trevia in 1398: but though all these wrote of plants, they were so totally destitute of method, that their works remain one great chaos, from whence it is impossible to extract anything.

On the revival of letters in the beginning of the 16th century, the botany of the ancients was restored a second time. The Greek writings were translated into Latin, the common language of Europe. Gaza, a Greek refugee at Rome, made elegant translations of Aristotle and Theophrastus, who afterwards were commented upon by Scaliger and Stapel. Dioscorides was also translated and commented on. His best commentators are Hermolaus Barbarus, Fuchsius, Ruelius Cordus, Gesner, and Matthiolus. The most distinguished commentators of Pliny are Dalechamp in 1604, Salmasius in 1689, Harduin, and Guilandanus. Mearius and Urinus have written commentaries upon Cato; Campegius and Monardes upon Mefue the Arabian, and Lonicer upon Avicenna. This last hath been translated by several writers, particularly Alpagus, Colaus, and Plemius, into Latin; and by one writer, Amaltheus, into Hebrew.

Hieronymus Bock, or Boeck, a German, generally known by the name of Tragus, is the first modern who has given a methodical distribution of vegetables. In 1532, he published a History of Plants, in which he describes 800 species; and these he divides into three classes, founded on the qualities of vegetables, their figure, habit, and size. The same method of arrangement was followed by Lonicer, Dodonaeus, L'Obel, Clusius, Brunfelsius, Monordes, Cordus, and some other botanists of this period. How far such a method was deficient, shall be considered in the following section; however, it was not till 1560 that Conrad Gesner first proposed to the world an arrangement of vegetables from the parts of the flower and fruit. He did not establish any plan founded upon this principle; but, having suggested the idea, left the application to be made by others: and in 1562, Dr Andrew Caesalpinus, physician at Pisa, and afterwards professor of botany at Padua, first availing himself of the ingenuity of his predecessor, proposed a method of arrangement which has the fruit for its basis; and thus gave origin to systematic botany, the second grand era in the history of that science.

Even this improved method of Caesalpinus was not without very great inconveniences, which shall be taken notice of hereafter. As it was, however, so greatly superior to every thing that had appeared before, it might have been expected that the learned would have immediately adopted it, and that all the former equivocal and insufficient characters would have been rejected. But the fact was otherwise. Caesalpinus's method of arrangement died with him; and it was not till near a century after, that Dr Robert Morison of Aberdeen, attaching himself to the principles of Gesner and Caesalpinus, re-established scientific arrangement upon a solid foundation; so that, from being only the restorer of system, he has been generally celebrated as its founder. In the long interval between Caesalpinus and Morison, flourished some eminent botanists. The most noted are, Dalechamp, author of A general history of plants; Theodore, surnamed Tabernemontanus, and Thalius, two German writers; Porta, an Italian, famous for an arrangement of plants from their relations to the stars, to men, and other animals; Prosper Alpinus, author of a Catalogue of the plants of Egypt; Fabius Columna, inventor of many of the botanical terms now used; the two Bauhins; Gerard and Parkinson; Zaluzianski, a Pole, author of an arrangement from the qualities and habit of plants; Marcgrave and Piso, celebrated for their Natural History of Brazil; Hernandez, equally celebrated for his history of Mexico. co; Pallaeus, or Du Pas, author of an arrangement of plants from the time of flowering, of all characters the most uncertain and insufficient; Johnston; Bontius, a Dutchman, author of a Natural History of the East Indies; Aldrovandus, the celebrated naturalist; and Rheede, governor of Malabar, and author of the well-known Hortus Malabaricus.

The method proposed by Morison has the fruit for its basis, as well as that of Cæsalpinus; to which, however, it is greatly inferior both in the plan and execution. It is indeed of all others the most difficult in practice; and was therefore not adopted by any succeeding writer, except Bobart who in 1699 completed Morison's Universal History of Plants, and an anonymous author whose work appeared in 1720. Imperfect, however, as his method is, it furnished many useful hints, which succeeding botanists have not failed to improve. Ray and Tournefort have owed him much, and are not ashamed to own the obligation. The same has been done even by Linnaeus; who hath established the science of botany on the most solid foundation, by introducing a method of arrangement, if not absolutely perfect, at least as nearly approaching to perfection as can be expected; and therefore hath been deservedly followed, in preference to every other, by all botanists, since its first publication. But to give a particular account of all the different botanical systems, with the particular advantages and disadvantages attending each, shall be the business of the subsequent sections.

Sect. II. Of the Ancient Method of arranging Vegetables.

In giving an account of the works of Theophrastus and Dioscorides, we have already taken notice that the former chose seven distinguishing characters, viz. the generation of plants; their place of growth; their size, as trees and shrubs; their use, as pot-herbs and esculent grains; and their lactescence, or liquor that flows from them when cut. Dioscorides divided them into aromatics, alimentary, medicinal, and vinous plants. The good properties of this method are, that the botanist, as it were, comes to the point at once; and when he knows the plant, knows also its virtues and uses, or at least part of them: but this convenience is greatly overbalanced by innumerable disadvantages; for the qualities and virtues of plants are neither fixed and invariable, nor are they impressed in legible characters on the plants themselves. The different parts of a plant often possess different and even opposite virtues; so that, supposing the virtues to be known, and applied to the purpose of vegetable arrangement, the root must frequently fall under one division, the leaves under a second, and the flower and fruit under a third. Besides, if we reflect that the sole end of such arrangement is to facilitate the knowledge of plants to others, the insufficiency and even absurdity of methods founded upon their virtues will immediately appear. A stalk of vervain, for instance, is presented to me, which I am to investigate from a presupposed knowledge of the virtues of plants. Before I can settle the claim to which it belongs, I must discover whether or not it has the virtues belonging to any of the plants I know; and this discovery being the result of repeated experiments on various parts of the human body, may require many years for its accomplishment.

The same causes which render methods founded on the virtues of plants unfavourable for the purpose of investigation, must evidently disqualify all their other variable qualities and accidents from having a place in a genuine systematic arrangement. The natale folum of plants, which is one of Theophrastus's divisions, affords no better distinctive characters than their powers and virtues. Many countries as well as many soils produce the same individual plants. The same species which crown the mountains, frequently cover the seas; and plants which have long been reckoned the peculiar inhabitants of some parts of Asia and America, are now found to grow naturally in equal perfection in the very different climates of Lapland and Siberia. The size of plants, which suggested the ancient division into trees and shrubs, is no less an equivocal mark of distinction than the circumstances already mentioned. The vine, which modern botanists denominate a shrub, was ranged by Theophrastus in his third class containing trees. In fact, everything reflecting size is so much affected by differences of soil, climate, and culture, that the same plant, in different circumstances, shall differ exceedingly in height; and in a method founded upon the size, would sometimes be ranged as a tree, and sometimes as a shrub, or even an under shrub, according as it happens to exceed, equal, or fall short of, a given standard. No less insufficient are characteristic marks drawn from the colour, taste, and smell of plants. Of all the attributes of vegetable nature, colour is perhaps the most inconstant. Heat, climate, culture, soil, &c., contribute to the production of endless diversities of colour, and render the transition from one to another natural and easy. Red and blue pass easily into white, white into purple; yellow into white; red into blue; blue into yellow, &c. In the same leaf or flower, different colours are frequently observed. Variations too in point of colour, are frequently observed to take place not only in different individuals of the same species, but even in similar parts of the same plant. Marvel of Peru and Sweet William produce flowers of different colour upon the same stalk. Objections equally valid lie against characteristic marks drawn from the taste and smell. The former varies in different individuals from differences of age, and even in the same individual at different times, according to the morbid or sound state of the organ. The latter is different in different subjects, and varies in each; nor are the effluvia sent forth from the same body always of equal intensity. In plants, taste is subject to continual variations from differences of climate, soil, and culture. Garlic in some climates, particularly in Greece, is said to lose its rankness; apples and pears, that grow naturally in the woods, are intolerably acid; celery and lettuce, which culture renders sweet and palatable, are in their wild uncultivated state, bitter, disagreeable, and in some cases noxious.

These considerations are abundantly sufficient to shew the imperfection of the ancient system of botany; and indeed, considering the vague and uncertain marks by which they distinguished one plant from another, we may rather wonder how such a science as botany came to have an existence among them, than that they arrived at no greater perfection in it, or suffered it so soon to fall into oblivion. Sect. III. Of the different Botanical Systems, from the time of Gesner to that of Linnæus.

The insufficiency of the ancient botanical system being to fully thrown in the last section, we think it needless to take much notice of the methods used by Traugus and his contemporaries and followers. The virtues of plants being found an insufficient characteristic, succeeding botanists had taken in the root, stem, and leaves; but these being also found insufficient and variable, Gesner turned his eye to the flower and fruit, as being the most permanent and unchangeable parts of the plant. In proposing the parts of fructification, however, as the most proper for arranging plants, he communicated no hints respecting the choice of some of those parts in preference to others. Each particular organ of the flower and fruit furnishes sufficient variety to serve as the foundation of a method; but all of them are not equally proper for this purpose. Cesalpinus, the first follower of Gesner, made a mistake in his choice, and took his distinguishing characteristics only from the fruit. The parts of the flower, therefore, being employed by the first systematic writers only as subaltern distinctions in finding out orders and genera, it is evident that the plant could not be fully investigated for several months. Suppose a plant ripens its fruit in October, and does not produce flowers till the following May; the clasps, upon inspection of the fruit in the month of October, is immediately ascertained; but the plant still remains unknown, and will continue to upwards of six months after, if the characters of the order and genus have been made to depend on any part of the flower. Methods founded on the fruit have another inconvenience; plants constantly ripen their fruit in those countries where they grow naturally, but not always in the countries to which they may be accidentally transported. 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, Asiatic, and West-Indian plants produce fruit in Britain. A method, therefore, founded upon the fruit, could only facilitate the knowledge of such plants to the inhabitants of those countries where they grow; to the English botanist they could be of little or no service. The same objection cannot reasonably be urged against methods founded on the flower, since the influence of climates much colder than that of Britain has not been able to destroy the faculty of producing flowers in many, perhaps in most, of the plants just mentioned.

Cesalpinus sets out with an ancient distinction of vegetables, from their duration, into trees and herbs. With the former he combines shrubs; with the latter, undershrubs; and distributes his plants into the following classes. 1. Trees with the germ, (radicle or principle of life in the seed) on the point of the seed. 2. Trees with the germ on the base of the seed. 3. Herbs having one seed only. 4. Herbs having two seeds. 5. Herbs having four seeds. 6. Herbs having many seeds. 7. Herbs having one grain or kernel. 8. Herbs having one capsule. 9. Herbs having two capsules. 10. Herbs having fibrous roots. 11. Herbs having bulbous roots. 12. Herbs having succory or endive-like flowers. 13. Herbs having a common flower. 14. Herbs having several follicles or seed-bags. 15. Herbs having neither flower nor seed.

The inconveniences of this method have been already pointed out pretty fully, and will evidently appear upon an attempt to refer any common plant to one of the 15 abovementioned classes. His sections, orders, or secondary divisions, are 47 in number, and depend upon a variety of parts and circumstances. The principal of these are, the disposition, situation, and figure, of the flowers; the nature of the seed-vessel, or cover of the seeds; the situation of the radicle in the seed; the number of seed-lobes, or seminal leaves; the disposition of the leaves, and colour of the flowers. The lacteence, too, or milkiness, which is observed in the compound flowers with flat florets, is made a characteristic distinction, and discriminates the first order of the 12th class. Thus, in the first systematic arrangements, the characters of the classes only were borrowed from the parts of fructification; while those of the subaltern divisions were very numerous, and respected every part of the plant; but that such divisions might be perfect, they should be constituted, like the classes, from the modifications of a single part of the fructification.

The great object had in view by Morison, who comes next in order to Cesalpinus, was to investigate the order of nature, not to fabricate an easy method of arranging plants. Hence his system is devoid of uniformity, and clogged with a multiplicity of characters; his classes are frequently not sufficiently distinguished from one another, and the key of arrangement seems totally lost. He sets out with a division of plants, from their consistence, into ligneous or woody, and herbaceous. He finds his system on the fruit, the corolla or blossoms, and the habit of the plants. His classes are as follow. 1. Trees. 2. Shrubs. 3. Undershrubs. 4. Herbs climbing. 5. Herbs leguminous or papilionaceous. 6. Herbs pinnated. 7. Herbs tricarpular, or with three capsules. 8. Herbs with four or five capsules. 9. Herbs corymbiferous. 10. Herbs having a milky juice, or downy tops. 11. Herbs culinarious, as grapes. 12. Herbs umbelliferous. 13. Herbs having three kernels. 14. Herbs having helmet-shaped flowers. 15. Herbs having many capsules. 16. Herbs berry-bearing. 17. Herbs called capillary plants, as the fern kind. 18. Anomalous or irregular herbs.

Of these classes, the fourth and eighth possess no genuine distinctive character; nor are the ninth and tenth classes sufficiently distinguished; the fifteenth class is not sufficiently distinguished from the eighth, nor the 16th from the fourth. His sections or secondary divisions, which are 108 in number, arise from the figure and subtance of the fruit; the number of seeds, leaves, and petals; the figure of the root; the direction of the stem; the colour of the flowers; the place of growth; and, in one class, from the medicinal virtues of some of the plants that compose it.

In 1682, Ray proposed his method to the world, two years after the publication of Morison's, which served in some measure as its basis. It consisted originally of the following 25 classes. 1. Trees. 2. Shrubs. 3. Herbs imperfect. 4. Herbs having no flower. 5. Capillary plants. 6. Staminoous herbs having only the stamens. 7. Those having one naked seed. 8. Umbelliferous herbs. 9. Verticillated, annular, or ring-shaped ones. 10. Rough-leaved plants. 11. Stellated or star-shaped ones. 12. Apple-bearing herbs. 13. Berry-bearing. bearing herbs. 14. Herbs having many pods. 15. Monopetalous uniform, or regular herbs. 16. Monopetalous irregular, or having different forms. 17. Tetrapetalous, having large pods. 18. Papilionaceous. 19. Papilionaceous herbs. 20. Corns. 21. Grafs. 22. Grafs-leaved plants. 23. Bulbous-rooted plants. 24. Plants near akin to the bulbous.

This method Ray carefully corrected and amended at different times so that the plan of arrangement which now bears the name of that author, and was first published in 1700, is entirely different from what had appeared in 1682. It now consists of 33 classes. Their distinguishing marks are taken from the port or habit of the plants; their greater or less degree of perfection; their place of growth; the number of seed-lobes, or seminal leaves, petals, capsules, and seeds; the situation and disposition of the flowers, flower-cup, and leaves; the absence or presence of the buds, flower-cup, and petals; the substance of the leaves and fruit; and the difficulty of classing certain plants. They are as follow:

1. Submarine, or sea-plants. 2. Fungi. 3. Mollusks. 4. Capillary plants. 5. Those without petals. 6. Plinpetalate, those with compound flowers; semiflorulent, or half-florlets. 7. Those with compound flowers radiated. 8. Those with compound flowers, flocculous, or with whole florlets. 9. Plants with one seed. 10. Plants umbellated. 11. Those flatted or star-shaped. 12. Rough-leaved plants. 13. Plants verticillate or whorled. 14. Those with many seeds. 15. Apple-bearing herbs. 16. Berry-bearing herbs. 17. Those with many pods. 18. Monopetalous herbs. 19. Those with two and three petals. 20. Those with great and small, or long and short, pods. 21. Leguminous plants. 22. Pentapetalous ones. 23. Bulbs, and bulbous-like plants. 24. Staminate ones, or those having only the stamens. 25. Anomalous plants, or those of an uncertain family. 26. The palms. 27. Trees without petals. 28. Trees with an umbilicated fruit. 29. Trees with fruit not umbilicated. 30. Trees with a dry fruit. 31. Trees with podded fruit. 32. Anomalous, or irregular trees.

The division into herbs and trees with which Ray's method sets out, acknowledges a different, though not more certain, principle than that of Caspianus and Morison. The former, in making this distinction, had an eye to the duration of the stem; the latter, to its consistence. Ray called in the buds as an auxiliary; and denominates trees, "all such plants as bear buds;" herbs, "such as bear none." But against this auxiliary there lies an unanswerable objection; namely, that though all herbaceous plants rise without buds, all trees are not furnished with them: many of the largest trees in warm countries, and some shrubby plants in every country, being totally destitute of that fealy appearance which constitutes the essence of a bud. In other respects, it is evident that neither Mr Ray's plan nor execution is in any degree calculated to facilitate the knowledge of plants. In fact, it seems to have been Ray's great object, no less than Morison's, to collect as many natural classes as possible; and these being separately investigated, a multiplicity of characters and steps was necessarily required to connect them: and hence the intricacy complained of in both these methods, which must always take place where the classes give rise to the connecting characters, and not the characters to the classes. The characters of the orders, or secondary divisions, in Ray's method, are no less multifarious than those of the classes. They respect the place of growth of plants; their qualities; the figure of the stem; the number, situation, substance, and division, of the leaves; the situation and disposition 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 History of Plants contains 18,655 species and varieties. The third volume, which was not published till 1704, and was designed as a supplement to the two former, contains the plants discovered by Tournefort in the Levant, and by Camelli at Luzon one of the Philippin islands. Ray's method was followed by Sir Hans Sloane, in his Natural History of Jamaica; by Petiver, in his British Herbal; by Dillenius, in his Synopsis of British plants; and by Martyn, in his Catalogue of plants that grow in the neighbourhood of Cambridge.

To Ray's original method succeeded that of Christopher Knaut, a German; which acknowledges the same principle, and is manifestly founded upon it. In his enumeration of the plants that grow round Hof in Saxony, published in 1687, he divides vegetables into 17 classes, which have for their basis the size and duration of plants, the presence or absence of the petals, the disposition of the flowers, the substance of the fruit, the number of capsules or seeds, the number and figure of the petals, and the presence, absence, or figure of the calyx. His classes are, 1. Herbs berry-bearing. 2. Monopetalous, or with one flower-leaf. 3. Tetrapetalous and regular, with four petals. 4. Tetrapetalous and irregular. 5. Pentapetalous, or with five petals. 6. Hexapetalous, or six petals. 7. Polypetalous, or many petals. 8. Multicarpular, or many capsules. 9. Naked seeds. 10. Solid, or not downy. 11. Downy seeds. 12. Without petals. 13. Staminate, without petals or calyx. 14. Imperceptible. 15. Imperfect. 16. Trees. 17. Shrubs.

The sections or subdivisions of the classes in Knaut's method are 62 in number; and arise from the figure of the stem and petals, the number of capsules and cells, their figure, the number of seeds and leaves, and situation of the flowers.

In 1696, a new method proposed by Dr Herman professor of botany at Leyden, was published by Zumbac, who arranged according to it the plants contained in the public garden of Leyden. Rudbeckius the Younger, in a dissertation published the same year, on the fundamental knowledge of plants, adopted Herman's method with a few inconsiderable variations. The classes of Dr Herman are 25 in number. They are founded on the size and duration of the plants; the presence or absence of the petals and calyx; the number of capsules, cells, and naked seeds; the substance of the leaves and fruit; the form and consistence of the roots; the situation and disposition of the flowers, leaves, and calyx; and figure of the fruit. 1. Herbs having one naked seed and a simple flower. 2. Having one naked seed and a compound flower. 3. With two naked seeds, and flatted or star-shaped. 4. Two naked seeds, and umbelliferous. 5. Four naked seeds, and rough leaves. 6. Four naked seeds, and verticillate or whorl-shaped. 7. With many naked seeds. 8. Having seed-vessels, bulbous and tricapsular. 9. Having one seed-vessel. 10. With two seed-vessels. 11. With three seed-vessels. 12. With four seed-vessels. 13. With five seed-vessels. 14. Podded, which are always tetrapetalous. 15. Leguminous and papilionaceous. 16. With many capsules. 17. Having fleshy fruit, berry-bearing. 18. With fleshy fruit, apple-bearing. 19. Without petals, but having a calyx. 20. Without petals, chaffy or flaminous. 21. Without petals, calyx, chaff, or flamina, i.e., a naked anthera, as the mosses. 22. Trees. Imperfect fructification, bearing catkins. 23. Trees with a fleshy fruit umbilicated. 24. Trees with a fleshy fruit not umbilicated. 25. Trees with a dry fruit.

The classes in Herman's method are subdivided into 82 sections or orders; which have for their basis the number of petals, seeds, capsules, and cells, the figure of the seeds and petals, and disposition of the flowers.

To the method of Dr. Herman succeeded that of Dr. Boerhaave, who succeeded to the botanical chair of Leyden in 1709. His method is that of Herman, blended with part of the systems of Tournefort and Ray; and contains the following classes. 1. Herbs submarine, or sea-plants. 2. Imperfect land-plants. 3. Capillary plants, or the fern kind. 4. Many naked seeds. 5. Four naked seeds, and verticillated. 6. Four naked seeds, and rough leaves. 7. Four naked seeds, and four petals. 8. Plants having one seed-vessel. 9. Two seed-vessels. 10. Three seed-vessels. 11. Four seed-vessels. 12. Five seed-vessels. 13. Many seed-vessels. 14. Two naked seeds, and umbelliferous. 15. Two naked seeds, and star-shaped. 16. One naked seed, and a simple flower. 17. One naked seed, and compound flowers semiflacculous. 18. One naked seed, and compound flowers radiated. 19. One naked seed and compound flowers corymbiferous. 20. One naked seed, and compound flowers flocculous. 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 cruciform. 30. Leguminous. 31. Having no petals. 32. Bearing catkins. 33. Monopetalous flowers. 34. Rosaceous flowers.

These 34 classes of Dr. Boerhaave are subdivided into 104 sections, which have for their characters, the figure of the leaves, stem, calyx, petals, and seeds; the number of petals, seeds, and capsules; the substance of the leaves; the situation of the flowers, and their difference in point of sex. By this method, Dr. Boerhaave arranged near 6000 plants, the produce of the botanical garden at Leyden, which he carefully superintended for the space of 20 years, and left to his successor Dr. Adrien Royen, in a much more flourishing state than he himself had received it. His Index or Catalogue of the Leyden plants was published in octavo in 1710; and afterwards, with great additions, in quarto, in 1720. This last edition contains descriptions of 5650 plants; of which number upwards of two thirds had been introduced into the garden since the time of Herman, by his illustrious successor. Boerhaave's characters are derived from the habit or general appearance of plants combined with all the parts of fructification; so that, as Linnæus very properly observes, he was the first who employed the calyx, flaminae, and style, in determining the genus. About 17 new genera were established by this author; among others, the very splendid family of the protea and silver-tree, which, although partly described by Morison, had remained generally unknown till this period. His method was adopted by one Emling, a German, in a treatise entitled The first principles of Botany, published in octavo at Wolfenbüttel, in 1748.

Hitherto all the botanists had been intent upon investigating the order of nature, rather than facilitating the arrangement of vegetables; therefore their methods were very intricate and perplexed; and their writings, however entertaining to the learned, could afford but very little instruction to the young botanist. In 1699, however, Augustus Quirinus Rivinus, a German, professor of botany at Leipzig, relinquishing the pursuit of natural affinities, and convinced of the insufficiency of characteristic marks drawn only from the fruit, attached himself to the flower, which, he was sensible would furnish characters no less numerous, permanent, and conspicuous, than those drawn from the fruit. The calyx, petals, flaminae, and style or pointal, which constitute the flower, are sufficiently diversified in point of number, figure, proportion, and situation, to serve as the basis of a mode of arrangement; yet all are not equally proper for this purpose. Rivinus made use of the petals as the largest and most beautiful part, and that from which the flower itself is commonly characterized. His method consists of the following 18 classes, which have for their basis the perfection and disposition of the flowers, and regularity and number of the petals. 1. Regular monopetalous, or having one petal. 2. Dipetalous. 3. Tripetalous. 4. Tetrapetalous. 5. Pentapetalous. 6. Hexapetalous. 7. Polypetalous, or having many petals. 8. Irregular monopetalous. 9. Irregular dipetalous. 10. Irregular tripetalous. 11. Irregular tetrapetalous. 12. Irregular pentapetalous. 13. Irregular hexapetalous. 14. Irregular polypetalous. 15. Compound flowers of regular florets. 16. Compound flowers of irregular and regular florets. 17. Compound flowers of irregular florets only. 18. Incomplete, or imperfect plants.

As Rivinus set out with the professed design of imparting facility to botany, he judged very properly in divesting his method of all extraneous matter, and rendering it as simple and uniform as the nature of the science would admit. The division into herbs and trees had been adopted by every writer on plants since the time of Aristotle. Rendered in some measure sacrificed by its antiquity, this division maintained a kind of importance to which it was by no means essentially intitled. Rivinus was the first who in this matter dared to think for himself. He was early sensible of the inconveniences to which those had submitted who employed it as a primary division; and therefore resolved at once to get rid of a distinction that is frequently uncertain, always destructive to uniformity, and in its nature repugnant to the genuine spirit of system, because totally unconnected with the parts of fructification. In the uniformity of its orders or secondary divisions, which are 91 in number, and acknowledge the fruit for their principle, Rivinus's method equals, perhaps excels, all that went before or succeeded it. Only three classes of his method were published by Rivinus himself. These are the 11th, 14th and 15th, which were offered. offered to the public at different times, illustrated with very splendid figures. The method was completed and published entire by Heucher, in a work entitled *Hortus Wittenbergensis*, printed in quarto at Wittenberg in 1711.

Several German authors have followed Riviéres's method, either wholly or in part, without offering any considerable amendment. The principal of these are, Koenig, in a work on vegetables, published at Basle in 1696; Welch in his *Basin Botanica*, printed at Leipzig in octavo, in 1697; Gemeinhart, in a catalogue of plants published in 1725; Kramer, in a work entitled *Tentamen Botanicum*, published at Dresden in 1728, and afterwards reprinted with additions at Vienna in 1744; and Hecker, in a dissertation on botany published at Hal in Saxony, in 1734. To these may be added Hebenstreit, an ingenious botanist, who in a treatise on plants published at Leipzig in 1731, just before his famous African expedition, established general characters, which had hitherto been wanting in Riviéres's method.

The writers who have attempted to improve upon Riviéres's method are Bernard Rupius, Christopher Ludwig, and Christian Knaut. Rupius in his *Flora Jenensis*, published at Frankfort in 1718, has arranged the 1200 plants there described by a method partly Riviéres's, and partly his own. It consists of 17 classes, and sets out with the same divisions and subdivisions as that of Riviéres; with this difference, however, that whereas in Riviéres's method all perfect flowers are divided into simple and compound, in Rupius's division of regular and irregular flowers precedes that just mentioned, and simple and compound flowers are made subdivisions of the regular flowers only.

Christopher Ludwig's method, which was published in 1737, and consists of 20 classes, differs but little from that of Riviéres. The author accompanied Hebenstreit on his expedition into Africa, and seems to have made plants his favourite study. The improvement, however, which he has made on Riviéres's plan, consists only in rendering it more universal, having enriched it with a multitude of genera collected from the works of Tournefort, Ray, Boerhaave, Dillenius, and other eminent botanists, whose general characters he has likewise adopted. His plan of arrangement has been followed by two succeeding writers; M. Wedel, in a botanical essay published in 1747; and three years after by M. Boehmer, in his catalogue of the plants which grow in the garden of Leipzig.

The method of Christian Knaut is much more properly his own, and departs in a much greater degree from that of Riviéres than either of the two former. The regularity and number of the petals furnished the classical divisions in Riviéres's method: in that of Knaut, number takes place of regularity; so that it is very properly termed by Linnæus, "The system of Riviéres inverted." This method was published in 1716; and sets out with a division into flowers which have one petal, and such as have more than one. It consists of the following classes:

1. Monopetalous uniform or regular. 2. Monopetalous disform or irregular. 3. Monopetalous compound uniform or regular. 4. Monopetalous compound disform or irregular. 5. Monopetalous compound uniform and disform together. 6. Dipetalous uniform or regular. 7. Dipetalous disform or irregular. 8. Tripetalous uniform or regular. 9. Tripetalous disform or irregular. 10. Tetrapetalous uniform or regular. 11. Tetrapetalous disform or irregular. 12. Pentapetalous uniform or regular. 13. Pentapetalous disform or irregular. 14. Hexapetalous uniform or regular. 15. Hexapetalous disform or irregular. 16. Polypetalous uniform or regular. 17. Polypetalous disform or irregular.

The fections or secondary divisions in Knaut's method are 121, and depend upon the internal divisions of the fruit; and upon this his opinions are somewhat singular. Every kind of fruit, whether pulpy or membranaceous, is termed by our author a *capsule*. Neither is the term restricted to fruits properly so called; it is extended also to those termed by botanists *naked seeds*, the existence of which Knaut absolutely denies. Agreeable to this opinion, capsules, he says, with respect to their consistence or substance, are of two sorts; pulpy, or membranaceous. The former correspond to the fruits of the apple, berry, and cherry kind; the latter to the capsules properly so called, and naked seeds of other botanists. Again, with respect to their cells or internal divisions, capsules are either simple or compound. Simple capsules have an undivided cavity or a single cell; compound capsules are internally divided into two or more cells. With other botanists, the umbelliferous flowers bear two, the lip-flowers four, naked seeds; according to Knaut, the former produce two, the latter four, simple capsules. Ranunculus, adonis, anemone, herb-bennet, and some other plants, have their flowers succeeded by a number of naked seeds collected into an aggregate or head; each of these seeds passes with Knaut for a simple capsule; so that the whole is an aggregate of several capsules with an undivided cavity or single cell. In numbering the cells or internal divisions of the pulpy fruits, our author has adopted a very singular method. Some fruits of the apple kind inclose a capsule that is divided into five membranaceous cells. It might then be very reasonably expected to find such fruits arranged with compound capsules of five cells; but, instead of this, the author whimsically enough combines in their arrangement the idea both of a simple and compound capsule. The pulpy part is undivided; in other words, it is a simple capsule furnished with one cell; the compound capsule inclosed contains five cells, which added to that of the pulp make the number six; and thus these kinds of fruits are arranged with those having capsules of six cells. By the same kind of reasoning, the fruit of the dogwood, which is of the cherry kind, and contains a stone with two cells or cavities, is placed by Knaut among compound capsules with three cells; the pulp passing for one division, and cavities of the stone or nut for the remaining two. This method of calculation is not the only singularity for which Knaut is remarkable. The essence of the flower is made by Ray, Tournefort, Riviéres, and most other botanists, to consist in the stamina and style. This position Knaut absolutely denies; and has established for a principle, that the flower is essentially constituted by the petals only. With him, the flower-cup, stamina, and style, are of little significance: their presence does not constitute a flower if the petals are wanting; neither is their absence sufficient to destroy its existence if the petals are present. From this it follows, 1. That there can be no flowers without petals; and, 2. That the regularity or irregularity... gularity of the flower can never depend on the stamens and style, which are only occasionally present, and not wise essential to its existence; both of which are evidently false to every botanical reader.

Since the time of Rivinus, no leading method in botany has appeared except that of Tournefort and Linnaeus. Tournefort sets out with reviving the distinction of plants into herbs and trees, which had been exploded by Rivinus. His system is founded on the regularity and figure of the petals, together with the two-fold situation of the receptacle of the flowers; his orders, on the pistillum or calyx. The classes are,

1. Herbs with simple flowers monopetalous, and bell-shaped. 2. Simple flowers monopetalous, tunnel and wheel-shaped. 3. Simple flowers monopetalous, labiated or lipped. 4. Simple flowers monopetalous, anomalous, or irregular. 5. Simple flowers polypetalous, cruciform or cross-shaped. 6. Simple flowers polypetalous, rosaceous or like a rose. 7. Simple flowers polypetalous, umbellated. 8. Simple flowers polypetalous, caryophyllaceous, clove-form. 9. Simple flowers polypetalous, lilaceous or lily-form. 10. Simple flowers polypetalous, papilionaceous, or butterfly form. 11. Simple flowers polypetalous, anomalous or irregular. 12. Compound flowers, flocculous, tubular or whole florets. 13. Compound flowers semiflocculous, flat or half florets. 14. Compound flowers radiated, like the spokes of a wheel. 15. Apetalous, having no petals. 16. No flower, but bearing seed. 17. No flower nor seed, in the vulgar estimation. 18. Trees with no petals, bare flamina. 19. Trees with no petals, bearing catkins. 20. Trees monopetalous. 21. Trees rosaceous. 22. Trees papilionaceous.

The secondary divisions in Tournefort's method, which are 122 in number, have obtained the name of sections. Their general distinctions are founded principally upon the fruit, as those of the classes are upon the flower.

Tournefort hath been followed by a vast number of botanical writers, of whom the most considerable are, Dr William Sherard, an eminent botanist of the last and present centuries. In 1689, he published the first sketch of Tournefort's method, under the title of Schola Botanica; or a catalogue of the plants demonstrated by Dr Tournefort, in the royal garden at Paris. It was not till five years after, that the Elementa Botanica, a work which contains the rudiments and illustration of his method, was published by Tournefort himself—Father Plumier, termed by way of eminence, the Tournefort of America, published in 1703, at Paris, a description of American plants, which he has arranged according to the system of Tournefort. In this work he accurately characterized 96 new genera. Falugi, an Italian, has described, in pretty elegant Latin verse, all the genera of Tournefort, in a work intitled Propo- priae Botanicae, published at Florence, 12mo, 1705. Several celebrated French academicians, particularly Marchant, Dodart, Niffle, Jussieu, and Vaillant, have also occasionally paid their tribute of acknowledgment to this author, from the year 1700 to 1740. The other authors of note who have followed Tournefort's method, are, M. Petit, an ingenious French botanist; Johren, a German, author of a treatise published at Colberg in 1710, entitled Vade mecum Botanicum, seu Odeus Botanicus; Feuille, in his description of the plants of Chili and Peru, published at Paris in quarto, 1714; Christopher Valentin, a German, author of a book intitled Tournefortius Contratus, published at Frankfort, in folio, in 1715; Ripa, an Italian, in a work intitled Historia Universalis Plantarum Conser- bendi Propositum, published in quarto, at Padua, in 1718; Michael Valentin, a German, in his Vivarium Reformatum, published in folio, at Frankfort, in 1719; the celebrated Dillenius, professor of botany at Oxford, and author of several much esteemed publications on botany, particularly the Hortus Eddamensis, and History of Mosses, in his Flora Giffensis, printed at Frankfort in 1719; Pontedera, an Italian, author of the delineation of a method which combines those of Tournefort and Rivinus, published at Padua, in his botanical dissertations, in 1720; Monti, an Italian, in a work published at Bologna in 1724, under the title of Indices Plantarum Variorum; Lindem, a German, in his Tournefortius Alfaicus, first published in 1728; Signor Michelini, author of several curious discoveries respecting mosses and mushrooms, in his Nova Genera Plantarum, published in folio at Florence, in 1729; Elvermes, a Swede, in a work published in the Swedish language, at Upsal, in 1730; Fabricius, a German, author of a work intitled Primitiae Flora Butijacensis, seu sex Decades Plantarum Rariorum, published in 1743; Sabatini, an Italian, in his catalogue of the plants that grow in the neighbourhood of Rome, printed at Rome in 1745; and the ingenious Dr Charles Alison, late professor of botany at Edinburgh, in his Tyreionium Botanicum, published at Edinburgh in 1753.

Of all this numerous list of writers, Father Plumier and Pontedera alone have ventured to quit the track pointed out by Tournefort. The former, in his arrangement of American plants, has relinquished the distinction into herbs and trees; but the latter has attempted more considerable variations. His classes are,

1. Uncertain. 2. Having no flowers. 3. Without buds, imperfect plants. 4. Anomalous or irregular. 5. Labiate. 6. Bell-shaped. 7. Saucer-shaped. 8. Wheel-shaped. 9. Tunnel-shaped. 10. Flocculous. 11. Semiflocculous. 12. Radiated. 13. Irregular. 14. Papilionaceous. 15. Liliaceous. 16. Caryophyllaceous. 17. Cruciform, or cross-shaped. 18. Umbellated. 19. Staminous, or with naked flamina. 20. Bearing buds, apetalous, or without petals. 21. Bearing buds irregular. 22. Bearing buds bell-shaped. 23. Bearing buds wheel-shaped. 24. Bearing buds tunnel-shaped. 25. Bearing buds, papilionaceous. 26. Bearing buds, rosaceous.

Besides all these methods, there have been invented two others, founded upon the calyx. The first of these was the invention of Peter Magnol, a celebrated professor of botany at Montpellier, and published in 1720, five years after the author's death. The other was delineated by Linnaeus, and published in his Clavis Plan- tarum, in 1738, three years after the publication of the sexual system. Magnol distinguishes two kinds of calyx; one external, which envelops and sustains the flower, and is the flower-cup properly so called; the other internal, which is the seed vessel or fruit. According to this idea, all plants, whether herbaceous or woody, are furnished with either the external calyx only, or with both. His classes are,

1. Herbs with the calyx external, including a flower unknown. 2. Calyx external, including a flower staminous. 3. Calyx external, including including a flower monopetalous. 4. Calix external, including a flower polypetalous. 5. Calix external, including a flower compound. 6. Calix external, supporting a flower monopetalous. 7. Calix external, supporting a flower polypetalous. 8. Calix internal only, which is the corolla. 9. Calix external and internal, flower monopetalous. 10. Calix external and internal, flower with two and three petals. 11. Calix external and internal, tetrapetalous. 12. Calix external and internal; polypetalous. 13. Trees with the calyx external only. 14. Calyx internal only. 15. Calyx external and internal both.

The characters of the orders, or secondary divisions, in Magnol's method, are derived chiefly from the figure of the calyx, petals, and seeds; from the disposition of the flowers, from the number of petals, and substance of the fruit. Fifty-five sections or orders arise from the combination of these characters with those of the classes; and these are again subdivided into genera, which possess this singularity, that, in place of distinctive characters hitherto employed, they exhibit complete descriptions of all the parts of fructification of one or two species of each genus. From this improvement Linnaeus manifestly borrowed the hint of his generic characters.

Sir John Hill, in his vegetable system, endeavours to classify plants according to their internal structure. Perhaps, (says he,) upon the foundation of a true anatomy of plants a natural method may be established; for it is certain, the forms of all the external parts of vegetables depend on the disposition of the internal; and all their differences are founded there. On the different inner structure of the vegetable body under certain courses of its vessels evidently depend the differences which characterize the seven first families, to the distinctions of which all classes are subordinate; and as these original distinctions are truly natural, we may here begin very safely.

"The seven families are these, 1. The mushrooms. 2. The algae, or foliaceous sea and land plants. 3. The mosses. 4. The ferns. 5. The grasses. 6. The palms. 7. The common race of plants. Their distinctions one from another are these:

1. The mushrooms are fleshy; and are destitute of leaves and visible flowers. 2. The algae are merely foliaceous, the entire plant consisting of a leafy matter without other visible parts. 3. The mosses have processes of the inner rhind for leaves. 4. The ferns consist of a single leaf raised on a stalk; and bear their flowers upon its back. 5. The grasses have jointed stalks and undivided leaves, and bulbs to hold the seeds. 6. The palms have a simple trunk, with leaves only on the top, and have the flowers and fruit in divided ears."

Lastly, the seventh class, which he calls the common race of plants, are such as have their roots, leaves, stalks, flowers, and fruits, distinct and obvious; and have not the characters of any of the other six families.

To this natural method his artificial one, consisting of 43 classes, and which takes up the whole of his voluminous work, is designed only as an index; but as this is universally allowed to be inferior to Linnaeus's, tho' he pretends to improve that system, we think it needless to take any farther notice of it.

Besides the sexual system of Linnaeus, which is now almost universally followed, he formed another, which, like that of Magnol, had the calyx for its basis; but greatly superior both in the idea and execution, being indeed singularly serviceable to the novice in botany, by familiarizing to him various appearances of an organ so important in its nature, and so diversified in its form, as the calyx is. The classes are,

1. Spathaceous like a sheath or hose. 2. Glumose or chaffy. 3. Amentaceous, or catkins. 4. Umbellated. 5. Common calyx or flower-cup. 6. Double calyx. 7. Flowering; the petals and stamens inserted into the flower-cup. 8. Crowned, or crown-shaped, with a radius. 9. Irregular. 10. Diform, or different shapes. 11. Caducous, which fall off or shed their leaves. 12. Not caducous, uniform and monopetalous. 13. Not caducous, uniform and polypetalous. 14. Not caducous, diform and monopetalous. 15. Not caducous, diform and polypetalous. 16. Incomplete calyx. 17. Apetalous, or a bare calyx without petals. 18. Naked, or neither petals nor calyx.

**Sect. IV. Of the Method of reducing Plants to Classes, Orders, Genera, and Species, according Linnaeus's Sexual System.**

This method of reducing plants to classes, genera, and species, is founded upon the supposition that vegetables propagate their species in a manner similar to that of animals. Linnaeus endeavours to support this hypothesis by the many analogies that subsist between plants and animals, which shall be more particularly pointed out in the next section. It is from this circumstance that Linnaeus's system of botany has got the name of the sexual system. The names of his classes, orders, &c. are all derived from this theory. He calls the stamens of flowers the males, or the male parts of generation; and the pistils females, or the female parts of generation. Plants whose flowers contain both male and female parts, are said to be hermaphrodites, &c. His classes, orders, and genera, are all derived from the number, situation, proportion, and other circumstances attending these parts, as will appear from the following Either publicly, i.e. have visible flowers.

Monoclinia, males and females in the same bed;—i.e. The flowers are all hermaphrodite, having flamina and pistils in the same flower.

Diffinitas, the males or stamens unconnected with each other.

Indifferentissimus, the males or stamens having no determinate proportion betwixt each other as to length.

1. Monandria, i.e. one male or stamen in a hermaphrodite flower. 2. Diandria, two males or flamina. 3. Triandria, three males. 4. Tetrandria, four males. 5. Pentandria, five males. 6. Hexandria, six males. 7. Heptandria, seven males. 8. Octandria, eight males. 9. Enneandria, nine males. 10. Decandria, ten males. 11. Dodecandria, eleven males. 12. Icosandria, twenty, or more males inserted into the calyx, and not into the receptacle.

13. Polyandria, all above twenty males inserted into the receptacle.

Subordinatis, two of the males or stamens uniformly shorter than the rest.

14. Didynamia, four males, two of them uniformly shorter than the other two.

15. Tetradymania, six males, two of which are uniformly shorter than the rest.

Affinitas, the males or stamens either connected to each other, or to the pistillum.

16. Monodelphia, the males or stamens united into one body by the filaments.

17. Diadelphia, the stamens united into two bodies or bundles by the filaments.

18. Polyadelphia, the stamens united into three or more bundles by the filaments.

19. Syngenesia, the stamens united in a cylindrical form by the antheræ.

20. Gynandria, the stamens inserted into the pistillum.

Diclinia, males and females in separate beds; i.e. plants that have male and female flowers in the same species.

21. Monoecia, male and female flowers in the same plant.

22. Dioecia, male flowers in one plant, and females in another, of the same species.

23. Polygamia, male, female, and hermaphrodite flowers in the same species.

Or clandestinely, i.e. whose parts of fructification are invisible.

24. Cryptogamia, the flowers invisible, so that they cannot be ranked according to the parts of fructification.

These 24 classes comprehend every known genus and species. It is an easy matter to class a plant belonging to any of the first 11 classes, as they all depend on the number of flamina or male parts, without regard to any other circumstance. The 12th class requires more attention. When the flamina amount to above 20, a tyro will be apt to imagine that the plant belongs to the polyandria class. In reducing plants of this kind to their classes, particular regard must be had to the insertion of the flamina. If they are inserted into the calyx or cup, the plant belongs to the icofandra class; if to the receptacle or basis of the flower, it belongs to the polyandria.

The 14th class is likewise in danger of being confounded with the 4th. In the 4th, the number of flamina is the same with that of the 14th: But, in the 14th, two of the flamina are uniformly much shorter than the other two; at the same time each particular flamen belonging to the different pairs stands directly opposite to one another.

The 15th class may be mistaken for the 6th, as they consist of the same number of flamina. But in the 15th, four of the flamina are uniformly longer than the other two; and these two are always opposite to each other.

ORDERS.

In the first 13 classes, the orders, which are inferior divisions, and lead us a step nearer the genus, are taken from the pistils or female parts, in the same manner as the classes from the flamina: monogynia, digynia, trigynia, tetragynia, &c. i.e. one, two, three, four, &c. female parts: when the pistils or female parts have no stalk or filament like the flamina, they are numbered by the stigmata or tops of the pistils, which in that case adhere to the capsule in the form of small protuberances, as may be observed in the flowers of the poppy, &c.

The orders of the 14th class are derived from a different source. The plants belonging to it have their seeds either inclosed in a capsule, or altogether uncovered. Hence they naturally admit of a division into the following orders, viz. gymnospermia, comprehending such as have naked seeds; and angiospermia, which comprehends such as have their seeds covered, or inclosed in a capsule.

The 15th class is divided into two orders, viz. the filiculosa, or those which have a short filiquea or pod; and the filiquea, or those which have a longer filiquea. The orders of the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 20th classes, are taken from the number of stamens; e.g., monodelphia pentandra, decandra, polyandra, &c.

The Syngenesia, or 19th class, consists of plants whose flowers are compounded of a great number of small flowers or floecules inclosed in one common calyx.

The orders of this class are,

Polygamia aquatilis, or such whose floecules are all furnished with stamens and pistils.

Polygamia spuria, comprehends those which have hermaphrodite floecules in the disk, and female floecules in the margin. This circumstance is made the foundation of the three following orders. 1. Polygamia superflua, includes all those whose hermaphrodite flowers in the disk are furnished with stigmas, and bear seeds; and whose female flowers in the radius likewise produce seeds. 2. Polygamia frugiferae, include such as have hermaphrodite seed-bearing floecules in the disk; but whose floecules in the radius, having no stigmas, are barren. 3. Polygamia necararia, is the reverse of the former: the hermaphrodite flowers in the disk want stigmas, and are barren; but the female floecules in the radius are furnished with stigmas, and produce seeds.

Polygamia segregata, many floecules inclosed in one common calyx, and each of the floecules likewise furnished with a perianthium proper to itself.

Monogamia. This order consists only of seven genera, viz., the strumphia, seriphium, corymbium, jahione, lobelia, viola, and impatiens; none of which have properly compound flowers, but are ranked under this class purely from the circumstance of having their stamens united by the anther.

The orders of the 21st class are partly taken from the number of stamens, and partly from the names and characters peculiar to some of the other classes; e.g., monocoea triandria, monocoea syngenesia, monocoea gyandria.

The orders of the 23rd are all taken from classical characters; e.g., polygamia monocoea, polygamia dioecia, and polygamia tricecia.

The 24th, or Cryptogamia class, is divided into the four following orders: 1. Filices, comprehending all plants that bear their seed in the back or edges of the leaf, and those that are called capillary plants. 2. Musci, which comprehends all the mosses kind. 3. Algæ, including the lichens, fuci, and many others whose parts of fructification are either altogether invisible or exceedingly obscure. 4. Fungi, comprehending all the mushroom tribe.

Having thus explained the method of reducing plants to their classes and orders, we shall proceed to inform the young botanist how to investigate the genus. This depends upon minute distinctions, and requires more attention. But it is impossible to investigate the genera, without being previously acquainted with a considerable number of terms. All the terms necessary for this purpose belong to the parts of fructification. To attempt to give an idea by words of the parts to which particular terms are applied, would not only be difficult, but, in a great measure, useless, especially to such as are totally ignorant of botany. We shall therefore give a list of the terms themselves, with proper references to the figures of the things signified by them, which will both be shorter, and more intelligible than the most accurate description that language is capable of.

List of Terms belonging to the Flowers and Parts of Fructification. See Plate LX.

Fig. 1. Spathe, a species of calyx opening longitudinally when the flower breaks through it.

2. Spadix, a species of receptacle peculiar to palm-trees, which consists of fruit-bearing branches included in a spathe.

3. a, Gluma, another species of calyx, belonging chiefly to grasses and corns, and consists of different valves; b, arista, or awn.

4. a, Umbella univerticata, comprehends the whole flowers, &c. arising from a common centre, and resembling a large fan. b, Umbella partialis, or a smaller parcel of the flowers, &c. resembling a small fan. c, c, Involucrum univerticale, a species of calyx in which the whole flowers are inclosed before their blowing. d, d, Involucrum partialis, a lesser calyx, which includes a smaller bundle of flowers, and which, before their blowing, is inclosed in the involucrum univerticale. Examples of these are found in the Hemlock, Carrot, &c.

5. c, Calyptra; b, operculum; a, capitulum. These terms are peculiar to mosses.

6. Amentum, a species of calyx, e.g., in the Willow, Birch-tree, &c.

7. Strobilus, a pericarpium or capsule composed of an amentum, an example of which occurs in the magnolia.

8. Fungi. a, Pileus; b, volva; c, stipes. These terms are mostly applied to the parts of mushrooms.

9. a, Receptaculum commune nudum, the common receptacle, or base of the flower, when the stamens, pistils, capsule, &c. are taken off.

10. Receptaculum commune palis imbricatum, or common receptacle imbricated or tiled with palis, or membranaceous lamellae.

11. Corolla monopetala. a, Tubus; b, limbus; i.e., a, the tube; b, the edge or margin of a monopetalous corolla. The corolla signifies the flower-leaf, when it consists but of one, and the whole flower-leaves, when it consists of more.

12. Is a flower laid in a proper position for shewing its different parts. a, Germen, which includes the seeds and capsule in which they are inclosed; b, stylus, which is a continuation of the germen; c, stigma, or top of the stylus; d d d d, filaments, or threads; e e e e, anthers. The filaments and anthers, considered as a whole, are called filamina; and the germen, stylus, and stigma, as a whole, are called pistillum. f f f f, Petalia, or flower-leaves.

13. a, The angues, or claws; b, the laminae, or plates of a polypetalous corolla, or corolla consisting of several flower-leaves.

14. a, Nectarium campanulatum in narciso, or bell-shaped nectarium of the narcissus. Nectarium is applied to every glandular part of a flower which secretes a sweet juice. Their structure is very different in different plants.

15. Nectaria cornuta in acorio, horned nectaria of the monkshood.

16. Horned nectarium in the calyx of the tropocorus. Fig.

17. a a a a, Nectarium in parnassia; the nectaria of the parnassia grans are six in number, each of which have 13 styli, with round buttons on their tops.

18. a, Perianthium, that species of calyx which is contiguous to the fructification; b, germs; c, stigmas; d, stigma; e, filaments; f, anthera debiflentes, or anthera shedding the pollen or dust; g, anthera integra, i.e. the appearance of the anthera before it sheds the pollen.

19. a, The filament, and b, the anthera, separated from the flower.

20. a, One grain of the pollen magnified by a microscope; b, balitus elasticus, i.e. an elastic aura supposed to be necessary for impregnating the seeds.

21. a, Germs; b, stigmas; c, stigma.

22. Folliculus; i.e. a pericarpium consisting only of one valve, opening longitudinally, and in which the seeds do not adhere to the future, but are inclosed in a particular receptacle a.

23. Legumen, is a double-valved pericarpium, having the seeds fixed only to one of the futures a a.

24. Silique, is a double-valved pericarpium with the seeds fixed to both futures or margins a b.

25. Pomum, a pericarpium without any valve, but made up of a pulpy substance, and containing a capsule in which the seeds are inclosed, as in the apple, &c. a, The pericarpium; b, the capsule, or seed-case.

26. a, Drupa, or a pericarpium containing a nut or stone, and having no valve, e.g. plumbs, &c. b, The nucleus, or stone.

27. Baccæ, or berry, is a pericarpium containing naked seeds dispersed through the pulpy part.

28. Capsula apice debilis, a capsule opening at the top to allow the seeds to fall out.

29. Four capsules included in a common pericarpium. a a, The valves; b b, the dissepimentum, or partition which separates the different seed-capsules from one another; c, columella, or central column, by which the capsules are connected.

30. A capsule cut open longitudinally, to show the receptacle of the seeds.

31. Pappus, a kind of corona or crown which is either hairy or penniform, and connected to the seeds of some plants, by means of which they are blown about by the wind. a, Pappus pilosus, or pappus resembling a hair; b, pappus plumosus, or feathered pappus; c, semen; d, stipes. The Dandelion, and many plants of the syngenesia class, afford examples of these parts.

Terms belonging to the Pedunculus or Footstalks of Flowers. Plate LXI.

32. Corymbus, i.e. flowers upon alternate pedunculi and foot-stalks, elevated proportionally above each other.

33. Racemus, a pedunculus or foot-stalk furnished with lateral branches.

34. Spica, alternate sessile flowers [i.e. flowers without any particular foot-stalk, but inserted directly into one common to the whole], upon a common foot-stalk; as in the Scirpus.

35. Verticillus. This term is applied to such plants as have clusters of flowers at different distances surrounding the caulis or stem; as in several species of Mint.

Fig.

36. Panicula, i.e. flowers placed sparingly upon separate foot-stalks; as in Oats, &c.

When these terms are understood, the genus may be easily investigated. But, in order still further to assist the young botanist, we shall give a systematic description of a few common plants belonging to different classes.

DIANDRIA MONOGYNYA.

Veronica, or Speedwell.

The Calix is a perianthium (18) divided into four parts or segments, and persistent (i.e. does not fall off till the seeds are ripe); the segments are sharp and lance-shaped.

The Corolla (11) consists of one rotated petal; the tubus (11) is about the same length with the calix; the limbus (11) is plane, and divided into four oval segments, the lowest of which is narrower than the rest, and the one immediately opposite broader.

The Stamina (12) are two, narrower below, and inclined upwards; the antheræ (12) are oblong.

The Pistillum (12) has a compressed germen (12), a filiform or thread-like stylus (12), about the same length with the stamina, and a little declined to one side: the stigma (12) is simple.

The Pericarpium (12) is a heart-shaped capsule, compressed at the top, and having two cells or partitions, and four valves.

The Seeds are roundish and numerous.

ICOSANDRIA POLYGAMIA.

Fragaria, or Strawberry.

The Calix is a perianthium, consisting of one plain leaf, divided into ten segments, each alternately narrower.

The Corolla has five roundish open petals inserted into the calix.

The Stamina are 20 in number, subulated or tapering, shorter than the corolla, and inserted into the calix. The antheræ are lunulated, or shaped like a crescent.

The Pistillum consists of many small gemmae, collected into a little head or knob. The styli are simple, and inserted into the sides of their respective gemmae. The stigmata are simple.

The Pericarpium is wanting in this plant. But the common receptacle of the seeds, which supplies the place of a pericarpium, is a roundish oval berry, plain at the base, pretty large, soft, pulpy, coloured, and deciduous, i.e. falls off before the seeds are ripe.

The Seeds are small, pointed, very numerous, and dispersed through the superficial part of the receptacle.

DIDYNAMIA ANGIOSPERMIA.

Digitalis, or Fox-glove.

The Calix is a perianthium, divided into four deep-cut segments, which are roundish, sharp at the top, persistent, and the highest one is narrower than the rest.

The Corolla consists of one bell-shaped petal; the tubus is large, open, ventricose or bellied at the backside; the base is cylindrical and narrow; the limbus is small, and divided into four segments; the superior seg- segment is more open and more emarginated than the rest.

The Stamina are four, subulated (44), inserted into the base of the corolla, and inclined to the same side; two of them are longer than the other two: the antherae are divided into two parts, and pointed at the top.

The Pistillum consists of a germen sharp at the top, a simple stylus situate like the Stamina, and an acute stigma.

The Pericarpium has an oval capsule, of the same length with the calyx, sharp at the top, having two cells, and two valves which burst open at both sides.

The Seeds are many and small.

**TETRADYNAMIA SILIQUOSA.**

Sinapis, or Mustard.

The Calyx is a perianthium consisting of four open or spreading leaves; the leaves are linear (43), concave, furrowed, disposed in the form of a cross, and deciduous.

The Corolla consists of four cruciform petals: the petals are roundish, plain, open, entire or not emarginated, with erect linear ungues (13) scarcely so long as the calyx.

The Nectaria (14, &c.), or glandulae nectariferæ, are four, of an oval figure, one of which is situate on each side betwixt the short Stamina and stylus, and likewise one on each side between the long Stamina and the calyx.

The Stamina have six subulated erect filaments, two of which are of the same length with the calyx, and always opposite to each other, and the other four are uniformly longer: the antherae are erect, and sharp at the top.

The Pistillum has a cylindrical germen; the stylus is of the same length with the germen, and the same height with the Stamina; the stigma is entire, with a little knob or button.

The Pericarpium is an oblong, scabrous, double-celled, two-valved pod, gibbous, and full of little protuberances on the under parts: the dissepimentum (29) is large, compressed, and often twice the length of the valves.

The Seeds are many and round.

**MONODELPHIA POLYANDRIA.**

Malva, or Common Mallow.

The Calyx is a double perianthium: the exterior one consists of three lanceolate, loose, persistent leaves; the interior has but one large, broad, persistent leaf, divided into five segments.

The Corolla has five plain leaves, united at the base, heart-shaped, and premorse (54).

The Stamina consist of numerous filaments, united into a cylindrical form below, loose above, and inserted into the corolla: the antherae are kidney-shaped.

The Pistillum has an orbicular germen, a cylindrical short stylus, and many brilly stigmata of an equal length with the stylus.

The Pericarpium consists of several distinct capsules joined by an articulation, resembling a deprest globe, and opening from within when ripe: the receptaculum is a kind of column binding the capsules together.

The Seeds are solitary, and kidney-shaped.

**SYNGENESIA POLYGAMIA AEQUALIS.**

Leontodon, or Dandelion.

The common Calyx is oblong, and imbricated: the interior scales are linear, parallel, equal, and open at the top; the exterior scales are fewer in number, and frequently reflected at the base.

The compound Corolla is uniform and imbricated.

The small hermaphrodite corolla are very numerous and equal.

The corolla proper to each floscule consists of one ligulated (i.e. plain and expanded outwards), linear, truncated (i.e. terminated by a transverse line), and five-teethed petal.

The Stamina consist of five very small capillary filaments: the antherae are connected together, and form a cylindrical tube.

The Germen of the pistillum is situate below the proper corolla. The stylus is filiform, and nearly of the same length with the corolla: the stigmata are two, and turned back in a spiral form.

This plant has no pericarpium.

The Seeds are solitary, oblong, rough, and terminated by a long pappous ripes (31).

The receptacle, or common base of the floscules (9), is naked, and full of small hollow points.

**GYNANDRIA PENTANDRIA.**

Passiflora, or Passion-flower.

The Calyx is a perianthium consisting of five plain, coloured leaves, similar to those of the corolla.

The Corolla consists of five plain obtuse semi-lanceolate leaves, of the same magnitude and figure with those of the calyx.

The nectarium is a triple corona, the exterior of which is longest, surrounding the stylus within the petals, and flattened above.

The Stamina are five, subulated, open, and connected to the stylus at the base of the germen: the antherae are oblong, obtuse, and incumbent.

The Pistillum consists of an erect cylindrical stylus, upon the top of which an oval germen is placed: the stylus are three, thicker, and wider above: the stigmata are roundish knobs.

The Pericarpium is a fleshy, suboval, one-celled berry, resting upon the stylus.

The Seeds are numerous, oval, and each of them inclosed in a small membrane.

**MONOECIA TETRANDRIA.**

Urtica, or Common Nettle.

The Calyx of the male flowers is a four-leaved perianthium; the leaves are roundish, concave, and obtuse.

The Corolla has no petals; but there is a small urceolated (i.e. an inflated skin, gibbous on each side) nectarium in the centre of the flower.

The Stamina consists of four subulated open filaments, of an equal length with the calyx, and one of them is placed between each leaf of the calyx: the antherae have no cells.

The Calyx of the female flowers is a double-valved, oval, concave, erect, persistent perianthium.

The Corolla is wanting.

The Pistillum has an oval germen, no stylus, and They have no periarchium.

The seed is single, oval, shining, and a little compressed.

These examples will not only illustrate most of the generic terms, but will likewise fix them in the mind more successfully than any formal explanation.

But the young botanist, after advancing thus far, must still be conducted a step further. Though he may be able to reduce plants to their classes, orders, and genera, he is hitherto totally ignorant of the specific characters. Before he be able to investigate the species, he must again submit to learn a considerable number of terms necessary for that purpose.

List of Terms necessary for investigating the Species of Plants. Plate LXI.

Fig.

37. Orbiculatum, of a circular figure. 38. Subrotundum, roundish or nearly circular. 39. Ovatum, ovate; or having its longitudinal diameter longer than the transverse, with its base forming a segment of a circle, and the top also roundish, but narrower. 40. Ovalis, see Ellipticum, oval or elliptical. 41. Oblongum, oblong; or having its longitudinal diameter exceeding the transverse any number of times, as twice, thrice, &c. 42. Lanceolatum, lanceolate, or oblong, and drawing to a point at each end. 43. Lineare, linear, or every where of the same breadth. 44. Subulatum, subulated, linear at the base, and afterwards tapering to a point, like an awl. 45. Reniforme, reniform, kidney-shaped; i.e. roundish, with the base hollow, and having no sharp points behind. 46. Cordatum, cordate, heart-shaped, i.e. nearly ovate, with a sinus, or hollow at the foot-stalk, but no sharp points or angles behind. 47. Lunatum, lunulated, resembling a crescent or half-moon. 48. Triangulare, triangular, or three cornered. 49. Sagittatum, sagittated, like an arrow head, i.e. triangular, with a sinus or hollow betwixt the two hinder angles or points. 50. Cordato-sagittatum, heart-shaped behind and sharp like the point of an arrow before. 51. Hastatum, halberd-shaped; i.e. like an arrow-head, with a sinus or hollow betwixt the hinder angles, and the angles themselves projecting out on each side. 52. Fissum, notched, nicked, or cut in at the top, so as to have the bottom of the notch or cut sharp, and its sides straight. 53. Trilobum, three-lobed, or having three (55) lobes. 54. Premorsum, fore-bitten, or as if a piece were bitten out of the fore-part of it. 55. Lobatum, lobed; or divided, down to the middle, into parts or segments standing asunder from one another. 56. Quinquangulare, having five points or angles. 57. Erosum, eroded, or as if it had bits irregularly gnawed out of the fore-part of it. 58. Palmatum, palmated; divided down, lower than the middle, into nearly equal lobes.

Fig.

59. Pinnatum, pinnated, or having any number of foliicles or small leaves connected on each side to one simple petiole. 60. Laciniatum, laciniate; having the dife variously cut, or as it were slit downwards, into parts of no determinate or regular figure. 61. Sinuatum, sinuated; having wide sinuses or hollows in the sides. 62. Dentato-sinuatum, sinuated so that the segments betwixt the sinuses resemble teeth. 63. Retrofascia-sinuatum; sinuated, with the parts betwixt the sinuses turned towards the base. 64. Partitum, partite; divided almost to the base. 65. Repandum, having a serpentine edge and the dife plain. 66. Dentatum, dentated; teethed, or having the tops of the segments patent or remote from each other. 67. Serratum, serrated, or having all the points of the teeth turned towards the fore-part. 68. Duplicato-serratum, doubly serrated, or having the larger serratures or teeth surrounded with smaller ones. 69. Duplicato-crenatum, doubly crenated, or having the larger crene or notches surrounded with smaller ones (74). 70. Cartilagineum, cartilaginous, the margin of which is gritty. 71. Acute-crenatum, acutely crenated, or having the crene or notches sharp at the top. 72. Obtuse-crenatum, obtusely crenated, or having the tops of the crene or notches blunt. 73. Placatum, plaited, having the dife towards the edge raised and depressed so that each turn forms an angle: Alchemilla. 74. Crenatum, crenated, cut in or notched so that the notches turn towards neither extremity. 75. Crispum, curled; when the margin grows larger than the dife, and runs into irregular waves. 76. Obtusum, obtuse; blunt, or terminated within the segment of a circle. 77. Acutum, acute; sharp, or terminated by an acute angle. 78. Acuminatum, acuminated, or terminated by a subulated or sharp point. 79. Obtusum cum acumine, obtuse with a sharp point superadded. 80. Emarginatum acule, acutely emarginated, or having a sharp notch at the top. 81. Cuneiforme-emarginatum, cuneiform, and emarginated; or wedge-shaped, with a notch at the top. 82. Retusum, retuse, terminated by an obtuse sinus or notch. 83. Pilosum, hairy; covered with long distinct hairs. 84. Tomentosum, tomentose; covered with fine downy hairs interwoven together and scarcely discernible, like flax silk. 85. Hispidum, bristly, having brittle and hard bristles scattered over its dife. 86. Ciliatum, ciliated; having parallel bristles, resembling eye-lashes, round the margin. 87. Rugosum, wrinkly, or full of wrinkles. 88. Venosum, venose; having veins or nerves with many ramifications. Fig.

89. Nervosum, nervose, with veins or nerves extending from the base to the top without any branches.

90. Papillosum, papillose, covered with minute fleshy points convex or elevated above the disc.

91. Linguiforme, linguiform, tongue-shaped; i.e., fleshy, linear, obtuse, and convex below.

92. Acinaceforme, cimeter-shaped; i.e., compressed, fleshy, with the one edge convex and thin, and the other thicker and straighter.

93. Dolabriforme, hatchet-shaped; compressed, roundish above, and gibbous on the foreside with a sharp edge, and somewhat cylindrical below.

94. Deltoides, deltoid; of an irregular rhomboidal figure, of which the two side-angles are nearer the base than the top. See the leaf of the black Poplar.

95. Triglum, prismatical, or having three plain sides.

96. Canaliculatum, channelled, or having a deep longitudinal furrow.

97. Sulcatum, having more deep furrows than one.

98. Tere, cylindrical.

Plate LXII. 99. Binatum, binate, or having a simple petiole with two leaves connected to its apex.

100. Ternatum foliolis petiolatis, ternated with sessile leaflets; or having three sessile leaves (i.e., without petioles) connected to the apex of one common petiole.

101. Ternatum foliolis petiolatis, ternated with petiolated leaflets; or having three leaves upon a common petiole, and each of these having at the same time a petiole of its own.

102. Digitatus, digitated, fingered; i.e., when a simple petiole has two, three, four, or more leaves connected to its apex.

103. Pedatus, pedate; having a bifid or forked petiole, with two or more small leaves connected to the interior side of the forks.

104. Pinnatum cum impari, pinnated with an odd leaflet, or small leaf, at the top.

105. Pinnatum abrupte, abruptly pinnated, or pinnated without any odd leaf or cirrus at the top.

106. —— alternum, pinnated alternately, or having the leaflets placed alternately on each side of the petiole.

107. —— interrupte, pinnated with the leaflets alternately larger and smaller.

108. —— circinatum, pinnated with a cirrus or clasp at the end of the petiole.

109. —— conjugatum, pinnated with only two leaflets.

110. —— decussate, pinnated with leaflets running down the sides of the petiole in the form of a web or membrane.

111. —— articulatum, pinnated with an articulated or jointed petiole.

112. Lyraeum, lyre-shaped; i.e., divided transversely into oblong horizontal segments, of which the lower ones are lesser and more distant from each other than the upper ones.

113. Bilaternatum, or duplicato-ternatum, bitermate, or double-ternate, or having three ternated (100) leaves upon one petiole. See Epimedium.

114. Bipinnatum, or duplicato-pinnatum, bipinnated, or double pinnated, i.e., having the primary pinnae pinnated again a second time.

115. Triternatum, or triplicato-ternatum, triple ternated, or consisting of three bitermated (113) leaves.

116. Tripinnatum sine impari, triple-pinnated without an odd leaflet, or having the secondary pinnae pinnated again, and these last pinnae not terminated by an odd leaflet.

117. —— cum impari, triple-pinnated with an odd leaflet.

Terms respecting the Determination of Leaves.

118. Inflexum, incurvated; bending upwards, with the point leaning towards the stem.

119. Erectum, erect; upright, or making a very acute angle with the stem.

120. Patent, patent; forming any angle with the stem greater than the former and less than half a right angle.

121. Horizontale, horizontal, or standing at a right angle with the stem.

122. Reclinatum, or reflexum, reclined or reflex, bending down arch-wise till the apex be lower than the base.

123. Revolutum, revolute, or rolled backwards in a spiral form.

124. Seminalis, seminal leaves, or seed-leaves; i.e., the lobes of the seed, which in many plants arise entirely out of the ground, are always the first that appear, and generally of a form or consistency different from those that succeed them.

125. Caulinum, cauline, or rising immediately from the stem or stalk.

126. Rameum, a branch-leaf, or rising out of a branch.

127. Florale, floral; leaf next the flower, and differing in its form from the other leaves of the plant. This is also termed a bractea, or spangle.

128. Peltatum, peltate; or having the petiole inserted not into the base, but into the inferior disc, at or near its centre.

129. Petiolatum, petiolate; connected with the plant by a petiole, or foot-stalk, inserted into the margin of its base.

130. Sessile, sessile; or connected immediately with the plant, without the intervention of a petiole.

131. Decurrent, decurrent, or having its base running down along the stalk; as in the Verbesina, Carduus, &c.

132. Amplexicaule, amplexicaule; embracing the stalk on all sides with its base.

133. Perfoliatum, perfoliate; having its base entirely surrounding the stalk, or the stalk perforating, or appearing to perforate it. See the Thoroughwax.

134. Connatum, connate; having its base united, or so close to its opposite as to form, or appear to form, with it but a single leaf, with the stem rising up through it.

135. Vaginans, sheathing, or with its base forming a cylindrical tube inclosing the stem. See Polygonum; Rumex.

136. Articulatum, articulated, or jointed, having one leaf growing out of the top of another.

137. Stellatum, stellate, or verticillate, when more than two leaves surround the stem at the same height like... like a whirl.

138. Quaterna, quina, sena, &c. are only different species of stellated, or verticillated leaves, when there are four, five, six, &c. leaves in one verticillus or whirl.

139. Oppositia, opposite; or when two leaves stand exactly opposite to each other, and each pair stands at right angles with the pairs immediately above and below it.

140. Alterna, alternate, or rising one above another by degrees.

141. Acerosa, linear and persisting; as in the Pine, Fir, Juniper, and Yew.

142. Imbricata, imbricated; erect, and so thick set as partly to cover one another like tiles or slates on a roof.

143. Fasciculata, fasciculated, or rising in a pencil from the same point; as in the Larix.

144. Frond. This term is applied to a species of stalk or trunk, consisting of branches and leaves, and sometimes the fructifications, all united together; and is peculiar to the Filices or Ferns, and the Palms.

145. Foliwm spatulatum, (Sauv.) spatulated, or roundish above, with a long linear base.

146. —— parabolicum, parabolical; having its longitudinal diameter longer than the transverse, and growing narrower from the base till it terminate somewhat like an oval.

Terms relating to the Caules or Stems. Plate LXIII.

147. Culmus squamosus, a scaly culm or stalk. Culmus is peculiarly appropriated to corns and grasses.

148. Caulis repens, a repent or creeping stalk or stem, giving out small roots here and there as it runs along the surface of the ground or upon another plant. Caulis is appropriated to denote the trunk of an herbaceous plant.

149. Scapus, is a species of trunk, which supports the parts of fructification, but has no leaves. See Narcissus, Pyrola, Convallaria, Hyacinthus.

150. Culmus articulatus, a jointed culm (147) or stalk.

151. Caulis volubilis, a twining stem, or which ascends by twisting itself like a spiral round the stem or branches of another plant.

152. —— dichotomus, a dichotomous stem, or which is first divided into two, and each of these divisions into other two, and so on regularly for any number of times.

153. —— brachiatus; having each pair of branches opposite the one to the other, and standing at right angles with the pairs next them, either above or below; so that, when viewed lengthwise, the whole branches appear to go out at right angles four different ways.

Terms relating to the Falera or Supports of Plants.

154. a, Cirrus, a clasper, tendril, or spiral thread, by which a plant fixes itself to any other body. b, Stipula, or little scales at the base of the petiole, or foot-stalk of the leaf, or at the base of the peduncle, or flower-stalk. c, Glandula concava, small hollow glands for the secretion of some particular fluid.

155. a, Glandula pedicellata, small pedicellate glands.

156. a, Bractea, a spangle, or flower-leaf, differing from the other leaves of the plant.

157. a, Spina simplex, a simple or one-pointed spine. b, Spina triplices, a triple or three-pointed spine. Spina is appropriated to such spines or sharp points as are protruded from the wood or inner substance of the plant.

158. Aculeus simplex, a simple or one-pointed prickle. An aculeus, or prickle, differs from a spine in being only fixed to the bark, and not protruded from the wood or internal substance.

159. Aculeus triplices, a triple or three-pointed prickle.

160. Folia oppposita, opposite leaves. a, the Axilla, or angle betwixt the leaf and the stalk.

Terms relating to the Roots.

161. Bulbus squamosus, a scaly bulb, or a root composed of scales imbricated, or lying over one another; as in that of the White Lily.

162. —— solidus, a solid bulb, or of one uniform substance throughout; as in the Hyacinth.

163. —— tunicatus, a tunicated or coated bulb, or consisting of coats lying above one another; as in the Onion.

164. Radix tuberosa, a tuberous root, or consisting of many little knots, or roundish bodies, collected into a bunch; as in the Filipendula.

165. —— fusiformis, fusiform, or spindle-shaped; i.e., oblong, thick, and tapering downwards; as in the Carrot, and Parsnip.

166. —— ramosa, a branchy root, or which is divided into many lateral branches.

167. —— repens, a repent or creeping root, or which runs out to a great length, and sends off small roots at different distances.

These are the principal terms necessary for understanding Linnaeus's description of the specific characters of plants.—To make the reader acquainted with the manner in which these terms are used, we shall give a few examples.

Class II. DIANDRIA.

Order, MONOGYNIA.

Genus, Veronica, or Speedwell.

Species, Veronica arvensis, has solitary flowers; cut, sessile (130), and cordated (46) leaves.

Veronica agrestis, has solitary flowers; cut, cordated (46), and petiolated (129) leaves.

Class XVI. MONODELPHIA.

Order, POLYGYNIA.

Genus, Malva, or Mallow.

Species, Malva sylvestris, has tomentose (84), crenated (74), and cordated (46) leaves, and oblong hairy spicæ (34).

Malva silvestris, has an erect (119) herbaceous caulis (148), with acute (74), seven-lobed (50) leaves, and hairy pedunculi and petioli (129).

Class XIX. SYNGENESIA.

Order, POLYGAMIA AQUALIS.

Genus, Carduus, or Thistle.

Species, Carduus helianthoides, or melancholy thistle, has RHEUM PALMATUM or