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mannict^ which, with their allies, constitute the next 

 Order to the Musci, diffuses a new light over the 

 whole of that Order. The works of Mr. Dawson 

 Turner on Fuci, and of Mr. Dillwyn on Confervcc, 

 have gone far to exhaust the species of those tribes, an 

 application of scientific principles to the settlement 

 of their genera being all that is wanting. The Lichen 

 family, under the controul of the great Acharius, 

 assumes the dignity of an entire and well-arranged 

 Order. The Fungi, better discriminated by With- 

 ering than by most popular writers, and well ex- 

 plained by the figures of the excellent and lamented 

 Sowerby, are, in their minutest details, exquisitely 

 illustrated by the Cryptogamic Flora of the ingeni- 

 ous Dr. Greville, and the accurate publications of 

 Mr. Purton. These, marshalled by the aid of the 

 learned Persoon and others, might possibly have 

 proved less obscure than heretofore. This tribe in- 

 deed leads the botanist to the end of his clue, and 

 leaves him in palpable darkness, where even Dillenius 

 was bewildered. 



All these subjects, if not yet brought into perfect 

 daylight, might well, by the help of those brilliant 

 northern lights, Acharius, Fries and Agardh, have 

 been made more accessible to the student, and more 

 instructive to systematic botanists, by one long ac- 

 customed to their contemplation in the wild scenes 

 of Nature, and not unfurnished with remarks of his 

 own. If our bodily powers could keep pace with our 

 mental acquirements, the student of half a century 



