ROBERT EROWX AXD THE '^[UXTHLY MAGAZTXE ' 181 



render it in every respect as complete as the confined limits would 

 admit of. It proposes to give the characters, generic and specific, 

 oi such plants as were observed and collected by the author during 

 the years 1802-5, in the expedition under Capt. Flinders, which he 

 accompanied out, but was fortunately not with on its return home- 

 wards. To these is added an account of such plants of that country 

 as have come to the knowledge of the author by other means, and 

 especially of those detected by Sii' Joseph Banks, in his voyage with 

 Capt. Cook towards the south pole. 



" It must be supposed, that in a country so unconnected with the 

 rest of the world, its natural productions would be in a great measure 

 different from those of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America ; aecord- 

 ingh% Mr. Brown has not only been under the necessity of creating a 

 great number of new genera, but even of considerabh^ increasing the 

 number of natural orders. In both respects some botanists will be 

 ready to think, that he has been more than sufficiently liberal; and, 

 indeed, some of his genera appear to us, from the superficial view we 

 are enabled to take, to depend upon characters of hardly sufficient 

 importance to keep them distinct ; but a more intimate acquaintance 

 with the plants which have come under his notice may induce us to 

 think differently ; and, at all events, our opinion can weigh but little 

 when compared with the intimate knowledge of the structure, internal 

 as well as external, of the plants he has described, which this author 

 proves himself to possess. 



" Mr. Brown, having to frame so many new genera, felt himself 

 under the almost absolute necessity of proceeding upon a natural 

 method, in order to avoid falling into great errors ; and, undoubtedly, 

 there is no other way of founding genera upon sound })rinciples, 

 but by studying their natural affinities. He has accordingly followed 

 the methods of Jussieu, whose orders are, for the most part, truly 

 natural ; but, of the classes of this admirable author, Mr. Brown has 

 formed a different estimate, conceiving them to be often artificial, 

 and not unfrequently founded upon ambiguous principles. He has 

 not however been solicitous about the series, but has connected 

 organic bodies rather in the manner of a net than a chain. In our 

 opinion, the simile of Linnseus is a more happy one, Avhen he compares 

 the natural orders of vegetables to a map, where the land is separated 

 from the waters into masses of very disproportionate bulk ; and these 

 more or less connected, or entirely separate. 



" The author promises to give the diagnosis of his orders, which 

 at present are to be gathered from the full descriptions prefixed to 

 each, and also contracted generic characters arranged after the 

 Linnean system, with the next volume, but which are, together with 

 the Acotyledones, to precede the present one. This circumstance 

 explains the reason of the volume beginning at p^tge 145, appearing, 

 at first sight, as if nine sheets of lettei-press had been omitted or mis- 

 placed. We shall be very glad to receive these additions, for in the 

 mean time none but such as have made a considerable progress in the 

 study of natural affinities, can easily use this work for the purpose of 

 discovering any plant they may happen to possess. So difficult 

 indeed is the acquisition of a knowledge of the natural families of 



