COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 39 



has been hitherto delayed, while two parts of the Vertebrata, by his coad- 

 jutor, Stannius, have come out already. Of another important work, and 

 this a new one, on Zoological structure and classification — " Zoonomic 

 Letters," by Dr. H. Burmeister — the first volume, commencing with the 

 lowest forms of Animal life, has reached us ; but this work will require a 

 separate critical notice at our hands hereafter. 



Passing from the Zoology to the Botany of the British Islands, we light 

 upon a contribution to Flora which the past year has produced, of especial 

 interest to the student of our native plants. Five years have elapsed since 

 the Third Edition of Babington's Manual of British Botany appeared : 

 in the Fourth Edition, which is now before us, we are again presented with 

 " many additions and corrections," embodying the author's latest views on 

 the limitation of species and varieties, with numerous accessions, from 

 various sources, to the previous list of our native and naturalised plants. 

 As in the former editions, care has been taken to distinguish between those 

 species that are supposed to be truly indigenous and such as have been 

 accidentally introduced and naturalized ; and many plants which had been, 

 on insufficient evidence, admitted into the British Flora, are now excluded. 

 The process of reduction might, perhaps, have been carried still further, 

 with advantage. 



The whole volume gives evidence of the careful revision and correction 

 which is spoken of in the preface, where we are specially referred to the 

 remodelling of the extensive and difficult groups, Hieracium, Carex, and 

 the whole order of Graminece. In reviewing those changes, we cannot but 

 applaud the pains and skill which the author has bestowed on his subject, 

 though, in many cases, we do not acquiesce in his views respecting species. 

 Perfect agreement among naturalists, on the subject of the limitation of 

 species and genera, indeed, is not to be expected, and our own views on 

 this subject happen to differ widely from those adopted by Mr. Babington. 

 To us it appears that the multiplication of species, on trivial grounds, has 

 been carried by modern botanists to an excess, which has materially injured 

 the science, and which, if followed up with equal zeal by the next genera- 

 tion, will go far to reduce Botany to the chaotic state in which it was found 

 by Linnaeus. If every form of plant that differs, by some little charac- 

 teristic, from its fellows, is to be recognised as a distinct species, the process 

 of species-splitting will be endless. Yet this seems to be the rule adopted 

 by a large number of the Botanists of France and Germany. As an evi- 

 dence of the absurdities to which it leads, we may instance the article 

 Solatium, in a recent volume of De Candolle's Prodromus, where the 



