IT. 



brECTES AS TO VARIATION, GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION, 



AND SUCCESSION. 



(AlIEKICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND AET8, J/oy, 1863.) 



J&tude sur VJEspece, a V Occasion Wiine Revision de 

 la Famille des Oupidiferes^jpar M. Alphonse De Can- 

 dolle. — This is the title of a paper by M. Alph. 

 De Candolle, growing out of his study of the oaks. It 

 was published in the November number of the Bib- 

 liotheqiie TJniverselle^ and separately issued as a pam- 

 phlet. A less inspiring task could hardly be assigned 

 to a botanist than the systematic elaboration of the 

 genus Quercus and its allies. The vast materials as- 

 sembled under De Candolle' s hands, while disheart- 

 ening for their bulk, offered small hope of novelty. 

 The subject was both extremely trite and extremely 

 difficult. Happily it occurred to De Candolle that an 

 interest might be imparted to an onerous undertaking, 

 and a work of necessity be turned to good account for 

 science, by studying the oaks in view of the question 

 of species. 



"What this term species means, or should mean, in 

 natural history, what the limits of species, inter se or 

 chronologically, or in geographical distribution, their 

 modifications, actual or probable, their origin, and 



