BOTANICAL SYSTEM OF PROFESSOR PERLEB. 329 



iilis, and Polygonum amphihiiim, vary in a remarkable man- 

 ner, according as they grow in or out of the water. Solaniim 

 Dulcamara and Clematis Vitalha are very variable as re- 

 gards their leaves. In Hellehorus foetidus, the leaflets are 

 sometimes joined together, forming one large and undivided 

 leaf. Spotted leaves are sometimes seen in Hieracium syl- 

 vaticum,Hier.murorum,Arum maculatum, Ijimium interme- 

 dium^ &c. Besides these, there are numerous other interest- 

 ing varieties to be met with in the vegetable kingdom, an 

 enquiry into which would amply repay the labour expended 

 in the search after them. 



Art. IV". — Remarks on the Botanical System of Professor Perleb. 

 By Sir Edw. Ff. Bromhead, Bt., F.R.S., Lend, and Ed. 



Perleb's ' Clavis' appeared in 1838, and must be considered 

 a work of very gi'eat value ; no Scientific History of the 

 Higher Botany can pass over his large contributions towards 

 the natural grouping of the families. He refers to his ' Lehr- 

 buch,' published as early as 1826, indicating by a mark (f)' 

 the additions made in the * Clavis,' and he complains that 

 Burmeister, in his * Handbuch,' adopts thirty-three out of 

 forty-four from his groups, without once naming the * Lehr- 

 buch' or its author. This is unquestionably true, and few 

 writers have such just grounds for complaint against his suc- 

 cessors, as Perleb ; but Burmeister's work is a general digest 

 of the whole of Natural History, and does not profess to 

 adjudicate authorship, even in the families, as monographs 

 and systems should do ; neither does it servilely copy Per- 

 leb, but freely deviates, sometimes for the worse, oftener for 

 the better. Lindley also, Endlicher, and indeed almost all 

 writers, except Perleb himself and Meisner, omit the found- 

 ers and synonymes of the Botanical Alliances ; an omission 

 partially supplied in ' Phil. Mag.,' Sept., 1^^77"lind to which 

 some additions are now made from Perleb and Burmeister. 



In the ' Clavis' are several matters worthy of imitation. 

 In page 8, he gives a Table of Abbreviations, used for indi- 

 cating the Authors of genera, &c. Such a Table, constructed 

 on uniform stenographic principles, and uniformly carried 

 through a Botanical Conspectus, would add greatly to the 

 clearness, brevity, and symmetry of the whole ; it should, 

 moreover, enable us to ascertain by suitable marks, not merely 



Ml is substituted here. 



