Address of Earl Stanhope, president of the Medico-Botanical Society, for the anniversary meeting, January 16, 1836.

  • Philip Henry Stanhope, 4th Earl Stanhope
Date:
1836
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Address of Earl Stanhope, president of the Medico-Botanical Society, for the anniversary meeting, January 16, 1836. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    which is so injurious to Botany itself and so inconvenient to those who study it; and hence we may reasonably infer that the present system is not entirely satisfactory even to those who are the most competent authorities upon the subject. Although Linnaeus classed the whole Vegetable Kingdom into 57 Natural Orders, they have since been increased to the number of 229, some of which have been again divided into Tribes, Sections, and Sub-Orders, while there are 34 Orders, each of which contains only two Genera, and about as many other Orders, comprising only a single Genus, and in some cases a Genus which has but one Species. While some plants, like Miguionette, the Pomegranate, and the CoByEA scandens, appear to be thus unsociable, there are others which, notwithstanding all their dissimilarities, are classed together; and the Elm, the Hop, the Fig, and the Nettle, are included by Jus- sieu in the same Order, and according to what is called a Natural Arrangement. According to another classifica- tion, the Elm belongs to the Order Ulmide^e, the Fig to the Artocarpe^, and the Hop with the Nettle to the Urtic^. Classification is the more important, because Plants which are similar in their characters are so likewise in their qualities, and ought therefore to be arranged in such a manner as to facilitate the investigation by analogy. The advantages that are derived from that analogy would of themselves offer a suflScient recommendation to the study of Botany, which is also of extreme utility in es- tablishing those precise and accurate definitions by which each Plant may be recognized, and may also be effectually distinguished from every other. The study must, however, be pursued with reference to some practical object, with- out which it becomes uninteresting to ourselves and un- profitable to others.
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