MR. BENTHAM OK LOaANlACE^. 53 



those artificial assemblages, whicli, in the present state of our 

 knowledge of plants, we are obliged to interpose between some of 

 the great families, to receive anomalous genera rejected from them. 

 Our natural orders, with all ^the improvements they have received 

 from the most philosophical of modern botanists, are yet as dis- 

 sumlar in definiteness of circumscription and apparent coiiformity 

 to nature, as they are in extent. Some indeed, including the two 

 most numerous of all, are so well characterized as to admit of no 

 doubt. The Oritcifer<B^ Leguminoscs^ Umhelliferce, Composited^ La- 

 oiat(B^ PalTTKe, Orchidece^ Oyperacece, Graininece, and several others, 

 comprehending two-thirds of the knowTi species of plants, are ad- 

 mitted by all botanists without any variation, and although, amidst 

 the thousands of species comprised in each, there may be some one 

 or two which may offer an exceptional character or anomalous 



structure 



demarcation. 



draw 



Megacarpcsas 



are still decidedly Cruciferous, not Capparideous. The distinction 

 between Lef/uminoscd and Mosacea, although so difficult to be ex- 

 pressed in words, is yet so clearly defined, that we find no single 

 genus or species ever considered as intermediate, and although the 

 passage from the former into Terelinthacece through Copaifera and 

 Connarus be really more gradual, yet it is still between those two 

 genera that the limits are placed by universal consent ; so are they 

 as irrevocably fixed between the closely 

 f^^tex,which form the connecting link 1 



allied ffenera Temriwn and 



nacece 



helUferce and Compositce are equally 

 isolated, notwithstanding the anomalous inflorescences of Hors- 

 fieldia and some others in the former and Xanthium in the latter, 

 which at first sight disguise their characters. The few species of 

 ^postasiecB are but anomalous Orchidece, rather explaining their 

 structure than connecting them with any particular order. Ci/pe- 

 ^acece and aramincrB retain their typical structure tlirough aU the 

 singular modifications hitherto obsen^ed. 



There are other orders again, even amongst the most numerous 

 in species after the Compositce and Leguminosce, which are admitted 

 on all sides to be natural, but upon whose precise limits few 

 Jjotanists can be made to agree, an almost continuous chain of 

 intermediate groiips connecting them with adjoining ones. Here 

 the severance has generally been made wherever the links have 

 appeared the weakest ; but as these weak points have been variously 

 appreciated bv difierent minds, and no definite standard has been 



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