68 



trary, has heaped together in each character every feature 

 he could pick up whether trivial or important, vi^ithout refe- 

 rence to the character of the plants most nearly allied, except 

 occasionally in a subsidiary remark ; and he absolutely con- 

 founds his reader, vi^ho has to compare these long characters 

 with each other word by word to ascertain wherein they differ, 

 and to his distress finds that they are not prepared in anti- 

 thesis to each other, and that, although in most respects 

 they may be substantially one, the same point is perhaps 

 expressed in different words, while, concerning other points 

 stated as to one genus, it does not appear how the fact stands 

 with respect to others alHed thereto. The further evil is, 

 that as the Professor cannot have personally inspected such a 

 multitude of features in every species of every genus, the facts 

 asserted concerning the whole genus will be found in many 

 respects incorrect ; and, if they were correct, the reader has 

 no means of judging which are the real points, a departure 

 from which must cause a plant to be removed from the genus. 

 Such a work therefore becomes a public encumbrance, and 

 Professor Kunth is earnestly entreated in his further volumes 

 to pursue the plain course of simplifying the generic charac- 

 ters, inserting no features which are not essential, and from 

 which a departure would not be inconsistent with generic 

 identity ; and to place all minor points in the mass of sub- 

 sidiary observations, amongst which any accidental inaccuracy 

 will not disturb the basis of classification. Prof. Kunth, in 

 attempting to distinguish Pseudoscordum from Hesperoscor- 

 dum of Dr. Lindley, gives three points, spathe with only two 

 valves, (though Dr. Lindley did not mention the absence of 

 secondary valves or bractes as characteristic of Hesperoscor- 

 dum), style persistent and not articulate, (a fact which seems 

 to be incorrect, for I have Hesp. lacteum now before my eyes, 

 perfecting its seed with the style firmly persistent on every 

 capsule), and the want of three glands on the summit of the 

 ovary ; but he omits the main feature, viz. the membranaceous 

 dilatation and connection of the filaments, and the articula- 

 tion of the perianth with the footstalk, which is correct, 

 though he puts a ? to it in the character, and adds to "stigma 

 simplex" therein, that it is three-lobed in the figure, which 

 is not the case, for it is merely triangular even in the mag- 

 nified figure. The facts concerning- Pseudoscordum as a 

 section of Allium rather than a sfenus are, Folia hnearia, 



