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Rh such comparisons as will enable us to understand the leading points of our Science, and then we can fill up the outline at our leisure. Such is the plan of the present Course; but before entering more into detail, some account of those individuals who have contributed to advance the study of Botany, as well as of those who have severally framed systems of classification of plants, together with a succinct description of their respective modes of arrangement, may not be uninteresting. I shall commence with a short memoir of Cæsalpinus, who was the ﬁrst inventor of a system of plants; and as this Botanist, for he deserves the appellation, flourished towards the close of the sixteenth century, and as systematic Botany formed such an important epoch, I propose to date its origin from this great Philosopher.

We will divide the history of the Science into five æras: —

I. From Cæsalpinus to Morrison, or from 1583 to 1669.

II. From Morrison to Tournefort, or from 1669 to 1694.

III. From Tournefort to Vaillant, or from 1694 to 1717.

IV. From Vaillant to Linnæus, or from 1717 to 1735.

V. From Linnæus to Smith, or from 1735 to 1791.