THE 



LONDON and EDINBURGH 



PHILOSOPHICAL MAGAZINE 



AND 



JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



4. 



[THIRD SERIES.] 



NOVEMBER 1837. 



LI I. Remarks upon the Botanical Affinities of Orobanche. 

 By John Lindley, Ph.D., F.R.S., $r., Professor of Botany 

 in University College London.* 



f" DOUBT whether there is any part of natural history in 

 A which it is so difficult to distinguish between the relations 

 of affinity and analogy as in systematic botany. It is, I con- 

 ceive, to this cause that we must ascribe the widely different 

 opinions entertained by botanists upon the manner in which 

 the natural orders of plants should be arranged, and especially 

 upon the sequences in which they should stand. It is only 

 by a gradual determination of this very difficult point that 

 we can hope to discover the true principle of classifying 

 Exogens ; a point of no little importance, considering how 

 extensively the present fundamental distinctions of Polypetala?, 

 Monopetalae, and Apetalas or Incomplete, interfere with 

 affinity. 



Supposing this opinion to be well founded, then, every 

 case in which errors in regard to affinity can be made out 

 becomes of great interest ; I therefore beg leave to point out 

 what I conceive to be a general mistake concerning the affi- 

 nities of one of our British genera. 



The genus Orobanche is placed next to Scrophulariacece, 

 or considered a member of that order, by almost all systematic 

 botanists. M. Kunth indeed placed it (Handbuch der Botanik, 

 p. 411) between Gesneracece and Solanacea?, but he assigned 

 no reason for so doing. Subsequently Professor Schultz as- 



* Communicated to the Meeting of the British Association at Liverpool, 

 September 1837. 



Third Series. Vol. 11. No. 69. Nov. 1837. 3 G 



