means formed correct ideas ; for like Linnaeus he consi- 

 dered all these plants as diandrous. Neither are his dis- 

 tinctions between his principal genera, Orchis and Epi- 

 j)actis, clearly conceived or intelligibly defined. The 

 latter is a most heterogeneous assemblage. His treat- 

 ment of tlie subject displays, nevertheless, an able mind, 

 perceiving, and laboriously contemplating, difficulties 

 which he could not conquer. Dr. Swartz first accurately 

 understood the structure of the anther, and happily di- 

 vided the Orchidece into natural sections, according to 

 the different shapes and positions of that part : taking 

 further characters of the genera from those of Linnaeus. 

 Mr. R. Brown, in his Prodromus Fierce Novce Hollan- 

 dice, and in the second edition of Mr. Aiton's Hortus 

 Kewensis, has revised the whole order with his accus- 

 tomed learning and accuracy, so as to confirm and illus- 

 trate the genera of Swartz, adding many new ones from 

 the ample stores of New Holland, and strengthening the 

 whole by characters derived from the texture or consis- 

 tence of the masses of pollen, (the anthers of authors an- 

 tecedent to Swartz,) in which substance Haller had re- 

 marked differences, without turning them to account in 

 practical arrangement. Mr. Brown has derived further 

 assistance from the presence or absence of certain little 

 pouches or cells, enclosing glands or tubercles, to which 

 the pollen-masses attach themselves, near the stigma. I 

 by no means doubt the use of these minute parts in sci- 

 entific discrimination, provided neither they, nor any 

 other, be allowed to overrule or contradict nature. But 

 I do not find it necessary to resort to what is obscure or 

 difficult, when I can derive clear, constant and natural 

 characters, from parts more easy of examination. Even 

 the position of the calyx and ■petals, whether spreading or 

 converging, is unquestionably of great importance in this 

 family. Whether, by the obvious and intelligible dis- 

 tinctions of genera to which I have resorted, I have made 

 the study of this beautiful and interesting family satisfac- 

 tory, those who follow me must decide. I wish the prac- 

 tical student of nature alone to be my judge; nor shall 

 I be flattered by a blind or implicit adoption of my ideas, 

 without examination. 

 Further i*emarks and illustrations will occur as we proceed 

 with the history of our British genera and species. 



