Anomalous Genera into Natmtal ' >nUrs. 2L>.» 



-lender embryo, and a pla<-cntati<>n, whicli is either axile or sutural, i 

 parietal U in /'tirnassia, it was afterwards removed. Don proposed to 

 plan- it in llyperieacox, and so now has Hooker in the British Flora, 

 and Lindlcy in the Vegetable Kingdom; yet Hypcricaceso is essentially 

 (liMiniriiishrd by its opposite leaves, long styles, oblique petals, which are 

 spirally twisted in estivation, and axile or sutural placentae, while Par- 

 nassia differs in every one of these particulars.* If, then, Paracusia is to 

 bo referred to Hyporicaceae, we have a right to expect that the character 

 of that order shall bo remodelled for its reception. But the question 

 .! rises, Is such a step judicious? Are we to break down the limits of any 

 order which is otherwiso as natural in habit as the definition in words is 

 precise ; and this for the reception of some genus, merely because wo do 

 not well know how to dispose of it V 



Lower down in the scale of arrangement we do not hesitate to constitute 

 an aberrant species into a new genus, rather than destroy the unity and 

 harmony of the other; and why this rule is not applied to genera when 

 put into an order, I have never been able to discover. It is certainly of 

 great benefit to science for an able botanist to indicate his views of the 

 affinity of such a genus to some other, and to a third and to a fourth 

 genus ; but if the writer ends by placing the genus where no one else 

 would look for it, and in an order which he has not carefully recharacter- 

 ised for its reception, he creates new confusion. 



Two methods for avoiding this are obvious : the one is to remodel the 

 character of the order so that the entrant genus may form a legitimate 

 part of it, provided this can be done without impairing the ordinal 

 distinctive characters. The second is to retain only in an order those 

 genera about which there can bo no dispute, and which together yield a 

 good and precise character to the order, and reject all the anomalous 

 genera. That this last is to be preferred there seems little doubt ; and 

 the only question that can arise is as to what is to become of these rejec- 

 tamenta; — are they to be erected into independent natural orders ? 



To this I see little objection : genera are but collections of species, 

 natural orders are mere collections of genera ; but, as we often find it 

 absolutely necessary to constitute a single species into a genus, there 

 can be no impropriety in extending the analogy and constituting a single 

 genus into a distinct natural order. The only inconvenience is, that 

 when other allied genera are discovered, we may have to alter consider- 

 ably the ordinal character, that being only applicable to the first known 

 genus ; but we have the same to do in species and genera, and then we 

 do not talk of it as at all inconvenient. It may be urged, that when a 

 genus is isolated, and the ordinal character can contain no more informa- 

 tion than that of the genus, it is sufficient to keep the genus in its proper 



* In fact, Parnassia docs not agree with the character of Lindley's Guttiferalcs, to 

 which Hypericacea: belongs, hut with Violules, even after the character of that 

 alliance is amended to admit of Viola itself, which it scarcely does at present. 



