Plantarum (1703) which displays principles of classification of which Morison had no conception.
The Tables of Plants does not illustrate any very definite principles. It was a tentative production, written to order: in fact, it appears (as explained in the preface to his Methodus emendata, 1703) that Ray, in writing it, was not free to follow what he really believed to be the order of Nature. It is interesting, however, as being the first systematic work published in England. The classification is based, to some extent, upon the character of the fruit, a principle borrowed, probably not from Morison but directly from Cesalpino. Before long it was superseded by a much more comprehensive and ambitious attempt, the Methodus Plantarum Nova, issued in 1682, two years after Morison's Historia (Pars Secunda).
Ray's Methodus Plantarum Nova, 1682.
- De Herbis.
Genus i. Imperfectae, flore et semine carentes: Algae, Fungi. " ii. Semine minutissimo: Bryophyta, most Pteridophyta. " iii. Acaules Epiphyllospermae, vulgo Capillares: Filices. " iv. Flore imperfecto, sexu distinctae: e.g. Humulus, Cannabis, Spinachia, Urtica. " v. "imperfecto, sexu carentes: e.g. Chenopodium, Alchemilla, Artemisia. " vi. "imperfecto, Monospermae, semine triquetro: Polygonaceae. " vii. "composito, Lactescentes: Compositae, Cichorieae. " viii. "discoide, Papposae: Compositae, most Asteroideae and Senecionideae. " ix. "discoide nudo, Papposae: Compositae, Eupatorium, Senecio, Gnaphalium. " x. "composite discoide, Corymbiferae: Compositae, some Anthemideae. " xi. "discoide nudo, Corymbiferae: Compositae, the rest of the Anthemideae. " xii. "ex flosculis fistularibus, Capitatae: Compositae, Cynareae. " xiii. "composito, Anomalae: Dipsacus, Scabiosa, Echinops, Armeria. " xiv. "perfecto, seminibus nudis singulis: Valeriana, Thalictrum, Statice, Agrimonia, &c. " xv, xvi. Umbelliferae.
