Page:A memoir of Lewis David von Schweinitz.djvu/30

Rh of facts, but a judicious method in the prosecution of his labours. The synoptical tables attached to his several monographs, are evidences of the importance attributed to this feature in his productions. His analytical table to facilitate the determination of the Carices, affords another striking illustration of the benefit to be derived from a systematic pursuit of scientific studies. It contains an abstract view of 110 antithetical positions of parts, which mark the species of that extensive and difficult genus; and since this analytical table was doubtless the result, in part, of his own inductive studies, it proves that of those studies he was able to make a legitimate and profitable use, by arranging all his facts under appropriate, general heads, and to point out to future inquirers, in what paths to pursue the labours, which himself has so happily followed. His monograph of the Carices of North America, soon after published, gave proof of the utility of this methodical arrangement.

Among the most extensive, and, in a scientific point of view, the most important of his labours, are those which relate to the Fungi. Four of his principal performances refer to this abstruse branch of botany.

Three of them, the "Conspectus Fungorum Lusatiæ," the "Synopsis Fungorum Carolinæ Superioris," and the "Synopsis Fungorum in America Boreali Media Degentium," are all, as their titles import, written in the Latin language. The mere reader of English may, perhaps, be ready to ask whether this was not a