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interests of the clergy, are to supersede the great question of freedom or slavery, it does appear to us quite impossible that so mean and so foolish a people can escape that destruction which is ready to burst upon them;-a destruction so imminent, that it can only be averted by arming all in our defence who would evidently be sharers in our ruin, and by such a change of system as may save us from the hazard of being ruined by the ignorance and cowardice of any general, by the bigotry or the ambition of any minister, or by the well-meaning scruples of any human being, let his dignity be what it may. These minor and domestic dangers we must endeavour firmly and temperately to avert as we best can; but, at all hazards, we must keep out the destroyer from, among us, or perish like wise and brave men in the attempt.

ART. V. Caroli à Linné Species Plantarum, exhibentes Plantas rite cognitas, ad Genera relatas cum differentibus Specificis, nominibus trivialibus, synonimis selectis, locis natalibus, secundum Systema Sexuale digestas, editio quarta, post Reichardiamam quinta, adjectis vegetabilibus hucusque cognitis, curante Carolo Ludovico Willdenow. Berolini impensis G. C. Nank, 1797, already published 3 vol. 8vo. in 7 parts, and part of the 4th. pp. 5,946.

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THE former of these works cannot fail to be an acceptable present to all proficients in botany, on account of its containing so many of the plants lately discovered, arranged according to a system with which they have been long familiar. The latter, as an introduction to botanical studies, forms an useful manual for those who are desirous of acquiring a knowledge of the vegetable kingdom.

The Species Plantarum, which began to be published in 1797, is not yet complete; but the eight parts which have come into our hands, reaching the length of the class Monoecia inclusive, are sufficient to enable us to form an opinion of the merits of the work.

It contains not only the plants described by Linnæus, (as the title imports), but likewise such of those discovered since the death of that eminent naturalist, as Mr Willdenow has been able, on good grounds, to reduce to their proper place in the Linnæan system.

If the utility of botanical studies be at all granted, the advantages of a systematic arrangement of vegetables will be readily admitted. It is true, that the greatest part of those who are employed in cultivating the soil, may go on from year to year,

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raising their wheat, clover, and potatoes, without troubling their heads about the class or order, the genus or species, to which their crops may be referred. Many medical practitioners also may be usefully employed during a long life, in administering opium, rhubarb, and senna, provided they know the proper doses of each, and the cases in which they ought to be employed, without knowing, or caring to know, that one is the inspissated juice of the Papaver somniferum, and the other the root of the Rheum palmatum. It is true, in like manner, that many artists are indebted to different machines, the mechanism of which they do not understand. Thousands make use of clocks and watches, who know nothing about pendulums or escapements, and who would be very much disposed to laugh at those who trouble themselves about such matters. But in spite of all this, there are some very good sort of people in the world, who think there may be some use in the study of botany and mechanics.

Though agriculture and medicine, the two professions which are usually thought to derive most benefit from the knowledge of botany, may be prosecuted without any acquaintance with methodical arrangement, yet, he who thinks of making improvements in either, by introducing into cultivation or practice, vegetables which have not formerly been attended to, or which may have been successfully cultivated or employed by others at a distance, would wish, in the one case, to be able to point out the species on which he had made his experiments, and in the other, to ascertain the particular plant, the cultivation or use of which he was ambitious of introducing. But besides all those to whom such knowledge may be useful, there are many worthy people who study botany merely for amusement, who would give a great deal for such a systematic arrangement as would enable them, with facility and precision, to reduce any plant to its genus and species. We shall take a short view, therefore, of what has been done towards accomplishing that object, that, from a knowledge of what has already been effected by the labours of others, some estimate may be formed of the obligations the lovers of botany lye under to Mr Willdenow.

The utility of many vegetables as articles of food, &c. the beauty and striking appearance of others, must have attracted the notice of men at a very early period; but until their virtues in curing diseases and healing wounds was discovered, it is scarcely to be supposed, that any great anxiety would be felt - even for an accurate description of them. This, perhaps, is the principal reason, why, in almost all those nations with whose early history we are acquainted, physicians have been the first botanists. Indeed, had we a more intimate acquaintance with

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the history of the Jews and Carthaginians, we might have said all, and neither made an exception of the Royal Botanist, who treated of all plants, from the lofty cedar which adorns Lebanon, down to the diminutive vegetables which disfigure walls; nor of the Carthaginian Mago, who wrote twentyeight books de re Rustica, which were thought worthy of being transferred to Rome, among the other valuable spoils of Carthage, and were translated from the Punic into the Latin language, by order of the Senate.

While the number of ascertained useful vegetables was small, those to whom they were known would point them out to their disciples, who, in that way, would become acquainted with their general appearances, and other sensible properties: But, when accidental discoveries, quackery, and intercourse between neighbouring nations, had augmented their number considerably, the necessity of accurate descriptions would become apparent.

Among the Greeks, though herbs were employed as medicines long before the Trojan war, and Cadmus had furnished the means of conveying their discoveries to posterity, yet many centuries elapsed before any writer appeared, who deserved the name of a botanist. Theophrastus the favourite disciple of Aristotle, who succeeded him in the direction of the Peripatetic school, and inherited his library, is the first author whose works have reached us, who obtained that appellation. Pythagoras, Hyppocrates, Cratejas, Aristotle, and many others, had treated indeed of vegetables before him; but their writings are either partly, or entirely lost, or contain but little of importance.

Of the ten books which Theophrastus wrote on botany, nine have been preserved, containing an account of more than 500 vegetables, which he divides into trees, shrubs, and herbs, a very humble attempt at methodical arrangement; yet, singular as it may appear, this clumsy distribution of vegetables prevailed, even among botanists, from his time, till near the end of the 17th century, and for some time cramped the first efforts made towards establishing a more perfect arrangement. His descriptions, as was indeed to be expected, are still more imperfect than his arrangement; for much more attention is required to detect those distinguishing marks by which closely allied genera or species are to be discriminated, than to trace general resemblances. Had he been aware, that all the trouble he had taken to point out the uses of the vegetables of which he treated, would have been lost for want of such descriptions as might enable his readers to recognize them, he probably would have bestowed more pains on that subject, and botany might have received more early improvement.

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The same inaccuracy of description, and want of method, in arranging vegetables, pervaded the writings of all the ancient botanical authors, and rendered their works obscure, and fre quently unintelligible. In reality, little or no addition was made to botanical knowledge by any of them, except in the number of plants they mention, from the time of Theophrastus, till some time after the revival of learning in Europe, a period of nearly 2000 years.

Dioscorides, who lived about the time when the Roman empire had nearly arrived at its greatest extent, mentions about 700 plants, which he divides as articles of materia medica, into aromatic, alimentary, medicinal, and vinous. That industrious compiler, Caius Plinius Secundus, whose ardent curiosity cost him so dear, in his Historia Mundi, 15 books of which are occupied with botanical and agricultural matters, mentions above 1000 plants, which he divides, according to the ancient arrangement, into trees, shrubs, and herbs. Neither this author, however, nor any of his contemperaries, seem to have considered botany as a branch of natural history, but merely as an account of useful vegetables; for he says, there are many more plants than those he has mentioned, which grow by the road sides, in hedges, and in the fields, which are of no use, and therefore have no names. All the succeeding authors who wrote on this subject, both European and Arabian, till about the beginning of the 16th century, were employed in copying their predecessors, and in making commentaries on their writings: at last, however, some, tired. of studying the ancients, began to study nature; and, convinced of the necessity of methodical arrangement, made several ineffectual attempts to arrange the plants they had collected, by means of their leaves, stems, and roots. Conrad Gesner, a native of Zurich, about the middle of the 16th century, first suggested the propriety of arranging vegetables, by means of their. flowers and fruit, but formed no system of his own. In 1582, Andrew Casalpinus, a Florentine physician, and professor of botany at Padua, published an arrangement of vegetables, according to the principles proposed by Gesner, of which, as the first that had appeared in Europe in any way deserving the name of systematic, some little account may be interesting.--He arranged all vegetables into fifteen classes, as follows.

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Two circumstances render this method imperfect, and prevented its general adoption. First, the marks of the classes are taken almost exclusively from the fruit; secondly, the ancient division is in great part retained, though a consciousness of its defects, had led the author in so far to disregard the authority of Aristotle and Theophrastus, as to attempt to improve it by classifying his vegetables under two divisions only; shrubs being left out altogether as a division.

After the lapse of a century, Dr Morison, a native of Aberdeen, and professor of botany at Oxford, by employing the parts of the flower and the general habit of the plant, in addition to those of the fruit, endeavoured to improve the method of Cæsalpinus, which had lain neglected ever since the death of its author. Morison also attempted to correct the defects of the ancient division, by dividing all vegetables into ligneous, and notligneous. The ligneous he formed into three classes, trees, shrubs, and undershrubs: the not-ligneous, i. e. herbs or grasses, into fifteen. The subdivisions of which amount to one hundred and eight.

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In 1682, John Ray, a native of Essex, who has acquired celebrity in other branches of natural history, published a methodical

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