348 Scientifiis Reviews. 



Richard, in his " Nouveaux Elelneiifi de Botanique/' has some ob- 

 servationson this subject tod much lost sight of. They will be found 

 at large in his preface ; but we have only room foi* a few lines : 

 " Dans I'etat aetiiel de la seiencey nous pensons qu'il y a peut-etre 

 plus de reductions a faire dans le nombre des genres et des families^ 

 qu'il n'y a lieu k multiplier ce nombre."— " l)ans ee nouvel etat 

 de choses, en roit tous les jours disparaitre les caracteres tranches 

 qu'on avait cru d'abord exister, soit eiitre les especes qui compos- 

 ent les genres, soit entre les genres reunis en famille. II en re- 

 suite necessairement que eomme les differences disparaissent, on 

 doit aneantir les coupes ou divisions qui avaient ete fondees suf 

 elles. Aussi, nous le repetons, les progres toujours croissans de la 

 botanique nous paraissent devoir presenter pour resultat de dimi- 

 nuer de beaucoup, et le nombre des genres actuellement etablis et 

 celui des groupes ou families que Ton a formees par leur rap- 

 prochement."* 



Perhaps, however, Richard goes too far into the opposite ex- 

 treme ; and we would recommend to botanists Sol's advice to 

 Phaeton, 



" Inter utrumque tene : medio tutissimiis ibis." 



Notwithstanding the great array of genera, Ave highly commend 

 Mr. Lindley's brochure, so far as he is concerned; but, with regard 

 to the publishers, we really think that 7s. for 96 pages octavo with- 

 out plates is exorbitant, and will deter many from becoming pur- 

 chasers. There is, however, no originality of conception in the 

 work, but the material is good. The mode occasionally adopted to 

 mark the position of the pollen masses is somewhat new, and both 

 simple and useful, and is only to be equalled by the corresponding 

 marks (which no doubt suggested the idea to Mr. Lindley,) used 

 by De Candolle for denoting the relative position of the radicle and 

 cotyledons of the Cruciferae, Labiatse and Polygoneae. 



Mr. Lindley pretends to give nothing more than a synopsis; 

 but in that synopsis all Dr. Wallich's new orchideous plants are 

 introduced, besides many from other parts of the globe, which make 

 the work highly valuable. 



Of the Malaxidese we possess in Britain very few species. In- 

 deed we have only Malaxis paludosa and Liparis Lceselii. All 

 Europe boasts of but one in addition, Microstylis monophyllos. 

 North America has two of these, Micr. monophylios and Ltp. hoe- 

 selii ; with two other species, Micr. ophioglossoides and Lip. It* 

 liifolia. Northern Asia has Micr. dipkyllos and Dienia Gmelini. 

 So that in the whole northern hemisphere we find only seven spe- 

 cies of the Malaxidese. 



• We would have extracted the above from Clinton's translation, were not 

 that translation execrable, and executed by one who does not understand the sub- 

 'ject. We wish to forget that such a book exists, so long as we can admire the 

 beauty and elegance of the original. ' 



