68 
trary, has heaped together in each character every feature 
he could pick up whether trivial or important, without refe- 
rence to the character óf the plants most nearly allied, except 
occasionally in a subsidiary remark; and he absolutely con- 
founds his reader, who has to compare these long characters 
with each other word by word to ascertain wherein they differ, 
and to his distress finds that they are not prepared in anti- 
thesis to each other, and that, although in most respects 
they may be substantially one, the same point is perhaps 
expressed in different words, while, concerning other points 
stated as to one genus, it does not appear how the fact stands 
with respect to others allied thereto. The further evil is, 
that as the Professor cannot have personally inspected such a 
multitude of features in every species of every genus, the facts 
asserted concerning the whole genus will be found in many 
respects incorrect ; and, if they were correct, the reader has 
no means of judging which are the real points, a departure 
from which must cause a plant to be removed from the genus. 
Such a work therefore becomes a public encumbrance, and 
Professor Kunth is earnestly entreated in his further volumes 
to pursue the plain course of simplifying the generic charac- 
ters, inserting no features which are not essential, and from 
whieh a departure would not be inconsistent with generic 
identity ; and to place all minor points in the mass of sub- 
sidiary observations, amongst which any accidental inaccuracy 
will not disturb the basis of classification. Prof. Kunth, in 
attempting to distinguish Pseudoscordum from Hesperoscor- 
dum of Dr. Lindley, gives three points, spathe with only two 
valves, (though Dr. Lindley did not mention the absence of 
secondary valves or bractes as characteristic of Hesperoscor- 
dum), style persistent and not articulate, (a fact which seems 
to be incorrect, for I have Hesp. lacteum now before my eyes, 
perfecting its seed with the style firmly persistent on eve 
capsule), and the want of three glands on the summit of the 
ovary ; but he omits the main feature, viz. the membranaceous 
dilatation and connection of the filaments, and the articula- 
tion of the perianth with the footstalk, which is correct, 
though he puts a? to it in the character, and adds to “stigma 
simplex" therein, that it is three-lobed in the figure, which 
is not the case, for it is merely triangular even in the mag- 
nified figure. The facts concerning Pseudoscordum as a 
section of Allium rather than a genus are, Folia linearia, 
