1010. The main object of all artificial systems of botanical arrangement is to facilitate the discovery of the names of plants. For this purpose some one organ, common to plants in general, is fixed on ; and, according to certain conditions in which this organ is found, individual species are referred to their places in the system, as words, by their initial letters, are referred to their places in an alphabetical dictionary. In the progress of artificial systems, different organs have been fixed on by different botanists; but those which have been most extensively employed are the corollas by Tournefort, and the stamens and pistils by Linnï¾µus. The system of Tournefort has been a good deal employed in France, and may be considered as the artificial system of that country; but that of Linnï¾µus has been generally employed in this, and most other countries, and it is justly esteemed by far the best artificial system which has hitherto been produced. The system of Linnï¾µus had the great advantage of being brought forward at a time when all systems of classification were in a state of great confusion, and when the introduction of a system so simple and clear as that of Linnï¾µus was like bringing light into darkness; and it was embraced with a degree of eagerness which we can now scarcely understand, but of which we find abundant traces in the works of all the older botanists.
