Excerpt from Illustrations of Indian Botany, or Figures Illustrative of Each of the Natural Orders of Indian Plants, Described in the Author's Prodromus Floræ Peninsulæ Indiæ Orientalis, Vol. 1: With Observations on Their Botanical Relations, Economical Uses, and Medicinal Properties; Including Descriptions of Recently Discovered or Imperfectly Known Plants

Should we on the contrary commence our examination with the artificial sexual system the first step, that of determining the class and order of a plant is the easiest, but that done, it often happens that nothing is learned, for, should the specimen under examination have a stamen or style more or less than the regular number, and nothing is more common among tropical plants, we look in vain in the class or order where according to our specimen it should be found, and when found, still that system conveys no collateral information regarding the relations of the plant or of the nature of the properties with which it may be endowed.

In drawing these comparisons it is not my wish unduly to exalt the one at the expense of the other, for in truth they are so very different that it is impossible to compare them, they both have their advantages and disadvantages, and in the present state of the science are both necessary, I certainly think however the preponderance of good is greatly in favour of the natural method. In thus giving the preference to that system which enables the student, who has made considerable progress in its study, to look over a large collection of plants, not one of which he had ever seen before, and readily refer probably as many as 19 out of every 20 to its proper natural order, from family likeness alone, I am far from as yet wishing to see the other altogether exploded, since by it we are often enabled quickly to determine abnormal plants that we could not so easily have done by the other; and in such cases, I still occasionally find the advantage of having formerly become familiar with the Linntean system. Though to this extent I approve of it, I could not recommend it for general use, as its natural tendency is to contract our ideas by concentrating our attention too exclusively on one set of organs and confining our enquiries to the investigation of the names of species only, in place of, as is the case with the other, expanding them with the growth of our knowledge by extending our researches, from the examination of species to the investigation of masses in all their bearings.

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