232 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
lowing synopsis of his seven tribes which would have been 
usefully placed in the Prodromus. 
Semina calva, 
Ovarium unicum uniloculare. . Tribe 1. Willughbeie. 
Ovarium unicum biloculare. . Tribe 2. Carisseæ. 
Ovaria duo distincta. . . . . Tribe 3. Plumerice. 
Semina comosa, 
Ovarium unicum biloculare. Se- - 
mina superne comosa. . . . Tribe 4. Parsonsieæ. 
Ovaria duo distincta. Semina 
inferne comosa. . . . . . Tribe 5. Wrightiee. 
33 m Semina 
utrinque comosa. . . . . Tribe 6. Alstonice. 
» » Semina 
superne comosa, . . . . Tribe 7. Echitee. 
With regard to the affinities, there is one excellent princi- 
ple mentioned in the memoir (p. 255) which, however, ap- 
pears to us rather too absolutely stated, “ Si vous ne pouvez 
pas dire en quoi deux familles se distinguent d’une maniére 
permanente et universelle, ces deux familles n’en font 
qu’une: deux terres qui se touchent forment une ile, et non 
deux iles; tandis que deux terres séparées par un bras de 
mer, forment deux iles, et non une seule.’ We botanists 
cannot be so mathematically exact as geographers, and where 
the isthmus is very narrow we must class the peninsula with 
the island. How often does it happen that two large orders, 
say of five hundred to two thousand or three thousand species; - 
totally distinct from each other in all these species by 4 
series of constant characters, are yet connected together by 
some small isolated genus of a dozen, half a dozen, nay 4 
single species in which these very characters are so incon- 
stant, uncertain or variously combined, as to leave no room 
for the strait, through which we ought to navigate between 
the two islands! Yet the general principle, as we have al- 
