the whole number will nearly amount to one thoufand eight hundred fpecies; of whichmore than, five hundred and feventy are of the clafs Cryptogamia, or that which corn-tains the ferns, moffes, algae, and fungi. That any curious perfons, yet unacquaintedwith this work, may judge how far it might be fubfervient to their knowledge of Eng-Iiifi botany, it may be added, that out of nine hundred and eighty fpecies already figuredIn the fifteen firft fafciculi, more than feven hundred are fpontaneoufiy produced inBritain .
Magnificent and accurate as this work is, and though conduced at the King’s ex-pence, truth will not be offended by afferting, that the execution of it is Hill inferior toa performance of the fame kind now publifhing in England, at the rifk of an individual..
I allude to Curtis’s Flora Londinvifis ; which, for the magnitude of the plates, the nicediferimination and figures of the fructification, has not been paralleled by any otherpublication of fuch fcope and defign :■ nor is the merit of the Flora Londinenfis confinedto the accurate elegance of the plates; it contains a minute defeription of each plant,and is enriched by fcientific, ufeful, and ceconomical obfervations, either extracted fromthe belt writers, or derived from the extenfive knowledge of its author. It is but juf-tice to add, that the minute plants of the clafs Cryptogamia, in the delineation of whichthe Flora Danica is extremely deficient, are figured with the utmoft exactnefs by Mr-Curtis, who introduced to the Englilh botanift five new fpecies of agarici
Chrifiian Oeder, to whom, through the liberality of his monarch, we are indebtedfor the Flora Danica , was the pupil and friend of the celebrated Haller, under whomhe was educated at Gottingen . According to Dr. Nugent’s account of Oeder f, hevifited England in his younger days, and acquired a great knowledge of the language.Whilft ftudent at Gottingen, he tranflated all the Englifh treatifes for a Latin editionof Dr. Mead ’s works, which Haller publilhed in 2 vols. 8vo. in 1748. The fucceedingyear he took his doctor’s degree in phyfic, and wrote, on that occafion, a thefis, whichHaller calls “ Dacia Dlffertatio contra RevulJionem& DerivaiionemF In 1752, at whichperiod he was fettled at Copenhagen, the Royal Academy of Sciences at Gottingen named him a correfpondent member ; and foon after he was made fuperintendant ofthe botanincal garden at Copenhagen , and profeffor of botany. In 1752, Oeder pre-'fided at the public deputation of Dr. Peter Afcanius, and took that occafion to write on ‘irritability; a fubjedt on which the experiments and obfervations of his great mailer haddrawn the attention of anatomifts and phyficians.
Having performed many journies into the different provinces of Denmark , accompa-nied by a draughtfman, and colle&ed great materials for the intended Flora , he pub»liIhed, in 1762, the firft fafciculus ; and in 1764, as a part of his plan, his Elements°f Botany , in 8vo. This work exhibits a profound knowledge of the fubjeift; and thea, -ithor has given the outlines of a new method of arrangement, adapted only to thePlants of Europe . The fecond volume of the Elements was printed in 1766; and isei nbellilhed with fourteen excellent plates, explanatory of the techinal part of his fubjecl.His fy Item was intended to comprife eight claffes: 1. Cryptanthera; 2. Monocotyle~dones ; 3. Amentacea ; 4. Incomplete ; 5. Calycarpa ; 6 . Calycanthema ; 7. Monopetala $
8 - Polypetala. Of this fyftem the author has qnly exemplified, the firft clafs, which hepublilhed in a feparate volume in 1770, in 8vo. j and in which are methodically ar«
* A. Oftreatus; Plycatalis; Glutinofus; Floccofus; Velutipes.—Mr,.Curtis publiflied only two vo-lumes of tliis fplendid work, which has been interrupted by his death, which happened in 1799.t See Nugent’s Travels through Germany , vol, i.
ranged.