CE. acaiilisof Cavanilles, (E. rosea of Aiton, 05. fruticosa of Sims, or 

 CE. speciosa of Nuttall. But no such species are to be found in the 

 book of Mr. Spach, who has been putting CEnotliera to rights. 

 Upon looking, however, more narrowly after our old acquaintances, 

 we at last discover them figuring away under the names of Megapte- 

 rium Nuttalliannm of Spach, Onagra vulgaris of Spach, Lavauxia 

 muticaof Spach, Hartmannia gauroides oi' Spach, Kneiffia suffruti' 

 cosa of Spach^ and Xylopleurum Nuttallii of Spach ; and in like man- 

 ner, our friends Fuchsia lycioides, thymifolia and microphylla have 

 been spirited away, and their places taken by Kierschliegeria lycioides 

 of Spiach, Lyciopsis thymifolia of Spach, and Brebissonia micro- 

 phylla of Spach. And upon what grounds, it will be asked, is all this 

 improvement effected? Why upon this ? Mr. Spach has made the 

 prodigious discovery that in some species of Oenothera the seeds 

 have a thicker skin than in others, that their skin is even oc- 

 casionally pitted ; he has further ascertained that the seed vessel is 

 not always of the same shape, but that it is narrow in some and 

 broad in others, tough in some and tender in others, now broadest 

 at one end now at the other ; and he has even found out that some 

 Q^^notheras have 8 ribs, others 12, and others only 4 in their 

 capsules. Armed with this intelligence this clever gentleman 

 snatches up his critical lance, jumps into the saddle, puts spurs to 

 his Rosinante, and rides full tilt at QEnothera, whom he unseats at 

 the first atteinte, and then cuts and hacks into a dozen pieces. No 

 one can deny that this is brave work ; all honour to Mr. Spach for 

 his feat. 



But to be serious— can any thing be well imagined more per- 

 fectly absurd or more pregnant with mischief than such doings as 

 this. If there is any meaning in the word genus, and if it has any 

 intelligible application, it must be the representation of some special 

 simple type of organization which differs from all other types: just as 

 an order is the representation of some more compound type of or- 

 ganization. Thus a Strawberry is a Rosaceous plant, in which a 

 tendency to become excessively succulent and saccharine exists in 

 the receptacle of the achenia ; a Potentilla is a Rosaceous plant in 

 which no kind of tendency exists to such an enlargement of the 

 receptacle, and the differences are constant ; again a Rubus differs 

 from both these genera in the tendency to enlargement and the for- 

 mation of saccharine matter existing in the achenia, and not in the 

 receptacle, and this is accompanied by the suppression of one series 

 of the calycine segments. These are clear, plain, intelligible dif- 

 ferences, each of winch constitutes a separate type of structure. But 

 is one seed being less pitted (scrobiculate) than another, a diff'erent 

 type of structure? Or having its seed coat a little thicker? Or 

 are we to consider an obovate capsule a different type of structure 



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