300 Dr. Lindley's Natural System of Botany. 



Alliance 5. Pittosporales, which strikes us as a singularly hetero- 

 geneous assemblage, bringing together into one group the Vitaceae, 

 Pittosporaceae, Olacaceae, Francoaceae, and Sarraceniaceae ! 



All the subclasses and groups, both of Exogens and Endogens, 

 are subdivided in a similar manner ; but we cannot here proceed 

 further with our enumeration. It will be borne in mind that the 

 chief object of an arrangement of this kind, is to facilitate the study 

 of the natural orders, by dividing the extensive primary classes into 

 sections of convenient size, and to dispose these groups, and the 

 orders they comprise, as nearly in accordance with their respective 

 affinities and relationships as a lineal arrangement will allow. It is 

 impossible, in the present state of our knowledge, to say how far the 

 views of our author will ultimately be approved. Every attempt of 

 the kind must necessarily be very imperfect, so long as the structure 

 of only a limited portion of the whole vegetable kingdom has been 

 attentively and completely examined ; and the author is well aware 

 "that this part of the work will require many great changes and im- 

 provements before it can be considered at all established." Notwith- 

 standing the objections to which it is liable in many particulars, we 

 agree with the author in the opinion, " that even in its present state 

 it will be found to be attended with numerous advantages, and that 

 every step which may be taken in determining the limits of natural 

 groups subordinate to the primary classes, must be a decided gain to 

 the science. So rapid is the advance of our knowledge of the ve- 

 getable kingdom, and so numerous are the new types of structure 

 that present themselves to the systematic botanist, that it is to be 

 feared lest another chaos should be brought on by the masses of im- 

 perfectly grouped species with which the science will soon abound." 



The names of natural orders, as first established, do not appear to 

 have been framed in accordance with any uniform rule, as to deri- 

 vation or mode of termination. They were sometimes intended to 

 express some characteristic feature, (Ex. Lcguminosa ', Labiatce, 

 Crucifera, Umbellifene, Conifera, he.) but more commonly some 

 genus was selected as the type of the family, which was designated 

 either by the plural of the genus simply, (as Myrti, Lilia, Irides, 

 Euphorbia,) or with a slight prolongation, (as Orchidea, Jasminea, 

 he.) or with the termination still further modified, (as in Cyperoidea, 

 Aroidece, Boraginece, or Ranunculacece, Rosacea, Cucurbit acece, 

 he.) The derivation of the name of an order from some prominent 

 genus is now the universal practice ; and for the sake of uniformity, 



