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85. VERONICA formosa. R. Br. prodr. 290. 
This pretty small-leafed shrub, white-flowered, evergreen 
and hardy, inhabiting the highest mountains of Van Diemen’s 
Land, has lately flowered in the garden of the Horticultural 
Society. Its power of existing in water only is quite extra- 
ordinary ; I have a specimen now before me, of which a 
twig placed in a vial of water has lived six weeks, ripened 
its seeds, and is now as fresh and healthy as it was at first. 
Genera et Species Gentianearum, adjectis observationibus quibusdam phyto- 
geographicis; auctore A. H. R. Grisebach, M.D. 8vo. Stuttgart and 
Tubingen, 1839, pp. 364. 
The extensive order of Gentianaceous plants, notwith- 
standing the difficulty or even impossibility of cultivating 
many of the species, is very interesting to the Botanist, both 
on account of the beauty and variety of a large proportion 
of the genera, and because of the difficulty of determining 
their limits and of reconciling the discordant opinions of 
systematical writers upon that subject. 
When, therefore, Dr. Grisebach undertook the elabora- 
tion of the order, the result of which is now before us, his 
task was one of no common kind, and had he addressed 
himself to it with less patience, or fewer materials, or a less 
clear perception of the true principles of generic limitation, 
his work might have been a useful compilation for other 
Botanists, but could not have taken the high station among 
philosophical systematical writings, to which this has un- 
questionably a claim. ! 
The materials at the author's disposal have been the rich 
herbaria of Chamisso, Kunth and other Berlin botanists, 
the miscellaneous collections of Sir Wm. Hooker and other 
strangers, the Indian species of Wight and Arnott, the Cape 
herbarium of Ecklon, and other collections of considerable 
importance. 
The natural character of the order, as regards the organs 
of both vegetation and reproduction, is given at considerable 
length, and is followed by some interesting morphological 
observations. These relate to the anatomy of the nodes of 
the stem, the inflorescence, and the organization of the 
flower. The author distinguishes two kinds of nodes in. 
