Volume 1

A botanical description of British plants, in the Midland counties, particularly of those in the neighbourhood of Alcester ... to which is prefixed a short introduction to the study of botany / [Thomas Purton].

  • Purton, Thomas, 1768-1833.
Date:
1817
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A botanical description of British plants, in the Midland counties, particularly of those in the neighbourhood of Alcester ... to which is prefixed a short introduction to the study of botany / [Thomas Purton]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    was my intention to continue a similar method throughout most of the Orders of the other remain¬ ing Classes; but on a more mature reflection, I thought it might be considered as innovating in some small degree ont-heLinnsean mode of arrange¬ ment; of which it is impossible for any one to have a more exalted admiration, than myself. The idea is therefore relinquished, and it is only suggested, as a more permanent improvement in the disposition of the Orders. The artificial and natural method of Classification in this arrangement, would blend more intimately. In the first thirteen Classes, the student in Botany, would refer at once to the Or¬ der, from the number of pointals or stigmas; and from'the number and disposition of the stamens, in the 16th, 17th, 18th, 20th, 21st and 22nd Classes. There would be no necessity for several sets of Orders; one for great Britain and another for the plants of the whole globe; and it would not then be left to the arbitrary will of any one, at his own pleasure, to alter the original arrangement.-Bu- tomus, agreeably to the Linnsean classification, is in the Ilexagynia Order, of sixth of the ninth Class. I wish Linnaeus had rested here, and had not formed a new series of Orders, which appears to be unnecessary. Hexagynia in this instance, according to his arrangement constitutes the third Order; for Great Britain, it stands in the first Order; and since the incorporation of the Classes, by Dr. Withering, it stands in the second Order.^ * Though an admirer of Dr, Withering’s work, I cannot but