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PREFACE.
plants by those organs that appear to be analogous in their
functions to the sexual organs of animals. Assuming the
flowering of plants to be what he poetically terms their
nuptials, he likened each separate flower to a bridal cham-
ber, and formed his primary divisions from the number of
the male organs present in each flower, and his subdivisions
were formed from the number of the female organs which
were also present in the same chamber: the Omniscient
Creator having lessened the chances of failure arising from
the immobility of plants b}' multiplying the points of union,
and increasing the number of the organs, especially of the
male. As Linnseus considered not only the number of
these organs, but in many cases their situation, connection,
and proportion, he has departed from the simplicity which
ought to form the basis of an artificial system and was so
strictly observed by Rivinus, and has rendered his system
as intricate as some of those who endeavoured to place
kindred plants together. His successor in the chair at
Upsal, Thunberg, has therefore endeavoured to simplify
his method, but with considerable opposition. While
Ludwig, in the second edition of his Genera, and Hill,
along with the primary divisions of Rivinus taken from the
corolla employed those of Linnaeus for their subdivisions,
but have not met with any followers.
The novelty of the Linnaean method, the distinction of
the species being always taken from the variations to be
observed in the plant itself, together with the industry of
Linnseus and his followers in extending his catalogue, and
forming, as it were, a new science, that of the nomenclature
of plants, instead of the old botany, which, as we have said,
principally devoted itself to the uses of plants, all contributed
to give an eclat to his system, and to extend its influence
beyond its proper limits. So that instead of being taught
to use this method only as a finder, or as an index to the
authors who wrote on the natural history of plants, the
student was led to believe that this was the only arrangement
that ough£ to be adopted in all works that treat of