1011. The application of the Linnï¾µan system in practice, Sir J. E. Smith observes, is, above all other systems, easy and intelligible. Even in pursuing the study of the natural affinities of plants, this botanist affirms ' that it would be as idle to lay aside the continual use of the Linnï¾µan system, as it would be for philologists and logicians to slight the convenience, and indeed necessity, of the alphabet, and to substitute the Chinese characters in its stead.' (Introduct. to Bot.) ' The student of the Linnï¾µau artificial system,' he elsewhere observes, ' will soon perceive that it is to be understood merely as a dictionary, to make out any plant that may fall in his way.' (Gram. of Bot.) ' If we examine,' says De Candolle, ' the artificial systems which have been hitherto devised, we shall find the most celebrated of them, that which was proposed by Linnï¾µus, to possess a decided superiority over all others; not only because it is consistently derived from one simple principle, but also because the author of it, by means of a new nomenclature, has given to his terms the greatest distinctness of meaning.' (Elements of the Philos. of Plants, by De Candolle and Sprengel.)
