Page:An introduction to physiological and systematical botany (1st edition).djvu/420

 390 various books; and as Linnæus always cites Bauhin's Pinax, which is the common botanical catalogue, or index to all previous works, we thus gain a clue to every thing recorded concerning our plant. Of all this mass of information and entertainment we shall find nothing more concise, luminous, or engaging, either with respect to the distinctions, uses, or history of plants than what is diffused through the various publications of Linnæus himself; and the same may, with at least equal truth, be said of those of his works which illustrate the Animal kingdom. His magic pen turns the wilds of Lapland into fairy land. He has all the animals of Sweden as much at his call, as our first parent while the terrestrial paradise was yet in primæval tranquillity. No writer whatever has rendered the natural productions of the happiest and most luxuriant climates of the globe half so interesting or instructive as Linnæus has made those of his own northern country.

The of the Linnæan System are 24, and their distinctions are founded on the number, situation, or proportion of the Stamens. The Orders are founded either on the