We have been always accustomed to refer them to Lili- 
acee, on account of their manifest resemblance to Fritillaria, 
and general accordance in other respects; and we scarcely 
expected that -a different opinion could be entertained, not- 
withstanding the difference between the calyx and corolla, 
which seemed to point out a relationship to Commelinee ; all 
that we have ever considered that cireumstance to indicate, 
was at most a tendency on the part of Liliacee to pass into 
Commelinee. We find, however, in the last volume of 
Romer and Schultes’ Systema Vegetabilium,— a work which, 
how that it is in the hands of Professor Schultes the younger, 
has become a most valuable collection .of Botanical facts, 
notwithstanding that it has the misfortune to be arranged, 
in obedience to the will of the booksellers, according to 
the obsolete system of Linneus. In this most useful work 
we find Calochortus referred to Melanthacee. For a long 
time we were at a loss to know how this singular opinion 
could have been formed ; and we once thought that it must 
have arisen from the three parted style which is found both 
in Calochortus and Cyclobothra. But upon a more atten- 
tive consideration, we ascertained that the bulbs of all the 
species were described by Prof. Schultes, who appears to have 
seen none of them, as solid. The old expression bulbus 
solidus, which is a contradiction in terms, and which in 
fact means rhizoma, is employed upon the authority of Mr. 
Douglas, who inadvertently used in his descriptions the term 
bulb solid, instead of bulb tunicated ; a technical difference 
which Mr. Douglas, who was little versed in the minutie 
of botanical pbraseology, might naturally misunderstand. 
Now every Botanist must know that this discrepancy, how- 
ever unimportant it may appear to the uninitiated, does in 
fact lead to most material errors in judging of affinity : for 
thacez, and that, now he has become aware of his error, he 
will agree with us in referring them, without any doubt, to 
As this genus is likely to becomé extensively cultivated, 
and as collectors will] doubtless be glad to know where to 
