(E. acaulis of Cavanilles, CE. rosea of Aiton, CE. fruticosa of Sims, ot 
(E. speciosa of Nuttall. But no such species are to be found in the 
book of Mr. Spach, who has been putting CEnothera to rights. 
Upon looking, however, more narrowly after our old acquaintances, 
we at last discover them figuring away under the names of Megapte- 
rium Nuttallianum of Spach, Onagra vulgaris of $ ach, Lavauxia 
mutica of Spach, Hartmannia gauroides of Spach, Kneiffia suffruti» 
cosa of Spach, and Xylopleurum Nuttallii of Spach ; and in like man- 
ner, our friends Fuchsia lycioides, thymifolia and microphylla have 
been spirited away, and their places taken by Kierschliegeria lycioides 
of Spach, Lyciopsis thymifolia of Spach, and Brebissonia micro- 
phylla of Spach. And upon what grounds, it will be asked, is all this 
improvement effected? Why upon this? Mr. S ach has made the 
parece discovery that in some species of (Enothera the seeds 
ave a thicker skin than in others, that their skin is even oc- 
casionally pitted ; he has further ascertained that the seed vessel is 
not always of the same shape, but that it is narrow in some an 
broad in others, tough in some and tender in others, now broadest 
at one end now at the other; and he has even found out that some 
(Enotheras have 8 ribs, others 12, and others only 4 in their 
capsules. Armed with this intelligence this clever gentleman 
snatches up his critical lance, jumps into the saddle, puts spurs t0 
his Rosinante, and rides full tilt at CEnothera, whom he unseats at 
the first atteinte, and then cuts and hacks into a dozen pieces. No 
EC deny that this is brave work ; all honour to Mr. Spach for 
1s feat. E 
But to be serious—can any thing be well imagined more per- 
fectly absurd or more pregnant with mischief than such doings as 
this. If there is any meaning in the word genus, and if it has any 
intelligible application, it must be the representation of some specia 
simple type of organization which differs from all other types: just as 
an order is the representation of some more compound type of or- 
ganization. Thus a Strawberry is a Rosaceous plant, in which a 
tendency to become excessively succulent and saccharine exists In 
the receptacle of the achenia; a Potentilla is a Rosaceous plant in 
which no kind of tendeney exists to such an enlargement of the 
receptacle, and the differences are constant; again a Rubus differs 
from both these genera in the tendency to enlargement and the for- 
mation of saccharine matter existing in the achenia, and not in the 
receptacle, and this is accompanied by the suppression of one series 
of the calycine segments. These are clear, plain, intelligible dif- 
ferences, each of which constitutes a separate type of structure. But 
is one seed being less pitted (serobiculate) than another, a different 
type of structure? Or having its seed coat a little thicker? Or 
are we to consider an obovate capsule a different type of structure 
B 2 
