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Show The BRITISH > inthe plants withfingleplain capfules for andfollow her fteps, as fhe allows more € numerous petals to the fowerin plants ithed bythe fruit. The lait clafs having ed thofe which have with a -fingle cappetals, the following will comprehend which have with a fingle capfule five and from thefe we fhall advance to he confideration of fuch as have fix, or more than fix petals, with the fame kind of feedvefiel, Thefe being defcribed, we hall treat of thofe which have pods with four-leaved flowers, and iWER BAL. thofe which have pods with papilionaceous flowers. This is the method we have laid down, ag moft conformable to nature: and thus much we have judged proper, indeed neceffary, to fay of it-here; left, as the work appearsin fep arate parts, the reader, whocannot till the whole is delivered to him, determine properly of it, fhould be miifled by an opinion founded on parts of it only, and led to fuppofe that through miftake omitted iin wales, which we hopeis rightly referyed to 8 HERBAL. BRITISH RELLLLLLLLLILGELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLD f te EIGHTH CLASS, CLAS 8. IA, Plants whofe flower confifis of vive peras regular in form and difpofitions whofe feeds are contained ina SINGLE CAPSULE, and whofe kaves grow im pairs. Te isa vety large and numerous clafs; nature has perfectly connected together the plants it compréehends, and obvioufly diftinguifhed them from all others: yet, as in other cafes, fo in this, the modern method, eftablifhed folely upon the number of threads, and their difpofition in the flower, has feparated many of them fromthe reft, and placed them among others with which they have no natural alliance. Nature is fo uniform, in even her fmalleft traces, that, in general, thefe minute parts are difpofed alike in plants of the fame clafies; but not univerfally. This general conformity ofthe fmaller with the larger parts led Linnzus to imagine that a method’ might be eftablifhed‘on their number and difpofition, which would take in the larger, more obvious, and more effential parts, only’ as’ fubordinate; and, as-this would be fure to carry. an air of novelty, it was natural to fuppofe it would = pleafe the ftudent, and do honourto the inventor. Hadit proved true that nature wasas firict in thefe-fmaller.as in the larger parts, a method might, as ufefully, have been founded on them as on the others: at Jeaft, it would have been liable to no other objection but that of being lefs plain and familiar: but when Linnzus found that, though manyof the plants in each natural clafs thus anfwered to the charaéters of his artificial ones, there were feveral.that did not, he fhould then have given upthedefign. That he did find this is certain; becaufe he has fet down innumerable inftances of it under the to the name of exceptions to his. generical charaéters; and he will daily, in his careful attention fubjeét, find more: but, probably, he had gone too far to recede, before he difcovered that thefe exceptions were fo numerous, It appears to me that he formed his characters of the common plants Plumier. principally: from Tournefort’s figures, and thofé'of the’ more’rare, in general from thofe of right in the minuteft Thefe figures are excellent, and‘particularly accurate; but, although generally y fometimes vary from nature in them; their authors not having been fo careful in parts, yet method ts as they: would: have been, if, like Linnzus, they had intended to eftablifh a thefe: lefie upon them. 2 ATR p a c e d ; Pook ! examining the This feems-to. have been’ the foundation. of Linnaus’s’ fyftem : and when, in eftablifhed characters andhis figures, its themfélves, he found they, did not exaétly anfwer thefe fet it down in his fucceedupon them, he has, with candour equal to his difcernment and affiduity, , : p vorks. able to form a proper judgment Upon this view of the Linnazan. method, -the reader’ will! be have been accompanied of ic;.and not too difadvantageons a one ofits author, whofe very faults : eS. ith ex t.to, the plants: of the prefent.clafs, all that anfwer the character eftablifhed \in. few diftinétion, are here-brought together. e re, makes it’ more who forms a. clafs of the fame x their other diftinétions 3 wi enfive, for he includes in it all that lants by as fuccindt afforting ‘ubordinate: but, as we havefet out uponthe plan of diftinguifh as nature admits, we have of thefe made three c 6 *¢ The |
