ROBERT BROWN- AXD THE ' MOXTKLY MA.GAZINE ' 183 



philosopliical principles, and often supplies the place of many words, 

 expressing that In^ a sig-n which would otherwise retpiire a paluphrase. 



" Two of the natural orders contained in this work, the Profeacere 

 and the Asclcpiadece, have been more fully detailed elsewhere; the 

 former in the Transactions of the Linnean Society, the latter in those 

 of the Wernerian, Societies : in the work under notice they are neces- 

 sarily^ limited to such as are natives of Austrah'a. 



" Our limits prevent our entering into any particulars of the 

 contents of this volume, nor is it very necessary, as no botanist who 

 is desirous of knowing anything of the vegetable productions of this 

 part of the world can be witliout it ; and the botanical philosopher 

 will find, in every part, much to interest and assist him in his enquiries. 

 Undoubtedly this Flora of New Holland will not only take the lead 

 of all local Floras, but must rank among the very first works for 

 promoting the science of botany in general." 



It may be worth while to a|)pend the other references to Brown's 

 work — appreciative, though not micritical — which appeared in the 

 Monthly Magazine. In vol. xxx, 809 (Xov. 1810), in the course of 

 a review of vol. i of the Horius Kewensis, ed. 2, (Iray writes : 



" In this order \^Profeace(je'] Mr. Dryander has followed Mr. 

 Brown's essay in the 10th vol. of the Transactions of the Linnean 

 Society, with scarcely any alteration, further than that the term 

 corolla is adopted for the calyx of Mr. Brown and Jussieu, and here 

 and there a superfluous .word is omitted. Undoubtedly an author 

 could not have followed a better guide than Mr. Brown, whose 

 knowledge of the Proteacece is greater than that of any man ; yet 

 we cannot but feel a wish that Mr. Dryander had undertaken to revise 

 the specific characters, and given them more of the Linnean terseness 

 and precision. We acknowledge that the task would be difficult, for 

 in a perfectly natural order, where the sjDecies of a genus are numerous, 

 the diff^erence is frequently marked rather by a number of points of 

 slight deviation than by any striking feature ; nevertheless, though 

 not easy to be accomplished, we do think that had he undertaken it, 

 all obstacles would have been surmounted by his abilities .... With 

 the generic characters of Mr. Brown more liberty has been taken ; 

 all of them have undergone a revision." 



Similarly qualified praise of Brown is given in the review of the 

 second volume of the llortus (M. M. xxxii. 202-5, Sept. 1, 1911). ■ 

 Speaking of the Asclepiadece it is said : " Perhaps the author [/. e. 

 Di'vander] could not do better than to follow the system of Mr. Brown, 

 who has taken great pains with it, and made more observations upon 

 this order than any other botanist. . . . We should have been glad 

 that means could have been found of limiting, in some degree, the 

 number of genera, in those cases especially where the species are not 

 too numerous. Several of Mr. Brown's genera consist of only one 

 species, as far as appears at least by this extensive catalogue." But 

 if it was common knowledge that the AsclepiadecB in the llortus 

 were the vrork of Brown, this attribution to Dryander can hardly 

 have been friendlv to the former. In M. M. xxxiv. 191 Brown's 



