Page:Frost (1827) Some account of the science of botany.pdf/13

Rh formed the idea. of the Sexual System, which now surpasses all others. I will venture to assert, without fear of proof to the contrary, that no plant has been found in any country that referred to one of the twenty-four classes he enumerated. Several Botanists have altered it; but, after all, the original is the best, with the alterations so judiciously made by Sir James Edward Smith, who very patriotically purchased the whole of the Herbarium of Linnæus, and he has published many new facts from it, which will ever lay Science under great obligations to him. Besides inventing this System, which will be the one adopted in this Course, he also described plants according to their natural affinities, and has left us ﬁfty-five families. This brings under our immediate notice the present famous natural system of de Jussieu, which is now so generally followed, almost to the entire exclusion of the Linnæan. No person can deny the brilliancy of the talents of Jussieu, so conspicuous in all his luminous writings, and throughout his system; yet to be impartial, it must he conceded that there are many plants which cannot be referred to any of his natural orders, the number of which exceeds an hundred, and they are approached by so many points, that it requires no ordinary memory to be able to classify plants according to its rules; and had the Linnæan no other recommendation than its simplicity and easy application, that alone would be sufficient to give it pre-eminence. In adverting to these systems, my object has been rather to lay them brieﬂy before you, than to discuss their comparative merits, trusting that the Linnæan will meet the wishes of my audience, both from the facility of illustrating it, and the ease with which the principles of it may he imparted. We shall employ the remaining Lectures in adducing examples of the different classes and orders. And now, having said so much on the arrangement of plants, we shall next consider the utility and advantages of a knowledge of Botany, which has frequently been designated as a catalogue of technical terms, without any useful application. It is scarcely worth while to endeavour to refute so futile an observation, were it not that it affords an opportunity of stating its claims to public patronage. If we consider it simply as it branch of education, what a delightful acquisition does it form with other accomplishments, and leads the mind "through Nature up to Nature's God." For who can examine the beautiful symmetry and organization of any plant, without living struck with the power and wisdom displayed throughout it? Does not an acquaintance