SEXUAL system, in botany, t hat s) stem of classification which was inviinted by the immortal Limeetis, professor of physic and botany, at Upsal, in Sweden. It is foonded on the parts of fructification, viz. the sta mens and pistils ; these having been oh. served with more accuracy since the dis covery of the uses for which nature has assigned them, a new set of principles have been derived from them, by means of which the distribution of plants has been brought to a greater precision, and rendered more conformable to true phi losophy in this system, than in any one of those which preceded it. The author does not preten. Ito call it', natu ral system; he gives it as only. and modestly owns his inability to detect the order pur sued by natiire in her vogetable produc tions; but of this he seems confident, that no natural order can ever he framed, with out taking in the materials out of which he has raised his own ; and urges the De cessity of admitting artificial systems for convenience, till one truly natural shall appear. Linnxiis has given its his Frag.
menti Metliodi Naturals," in which he has made a dist ribto ion of plants under various orders, putting together in each such as appear to have a natural affinity to each other : this, Ale- a long and fruitless search after the natural method, he gives as the result of his own speculation, for the assistance such as may engage in the same pursuit hereafter. Not finding it practicable to form a system after the na tural method, Linnais was more fully convinced of the absolute necessity of adopting an artificial one, of which a de tali•d account is given under the article