132 



THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



work, however, was arranged by the Linnean system, and merely 

 contains the briefest references to the natural orders of Jussieu. 

 Nevertheless the work was an excellent Flora of the country ; the 

 third volume was published in 1825, and a fourth in 1828. The 

 Cryptogams, except Ferns, are not included. It was the last work 

 of the author, who died 17th March, 1828. 



In 1829 the Eev. J. S. Henslow, Professor of Botany at Cam- 

 bridge, published a Cataloc/ue of British Plants ''arranged according 

 to the Natural System, with the synonyms of De CandoUe, Smith, 

 and Lindley." It comprises fourteen hundred and fifty indigenous 

 and fifty-oue naturalized plants. This Catalogue is very interesting, 

 being, as far as I know, the earliest of its kind, and a sort of precursor 

 of the well-known London Cataloijiie. In the same year John Lindley, 

 Professor of Botany in University College, London, published A Sijn- 

 apsis of the British Flora "arranged according to the natural orders." 

 This was a small book, the descriptions of the orders, genera, and 

 species being concise, and localities mentioned few. In his preface, 

 alluding to the long reign of the Linnean system under Smith and 

 his followers, he says : " That the system of classification invented 

 by Linnaeus was altogether worthy of the reputation of that great 

 man, considering the state of science at the time when he lived, 

 and that it effected much temporary good, may perhaps be conceded; 

 but that any botanist should attempt to deny that when it fell into 

 the hands of such men as were esteemed the heads of the Linnaean 

 system during the last quarter of a century it became a positive 

 incubus upon science, is to me, I must confess, a subject of un- 

 feigned astonishment. Surely it cannot be denied that this school 

 has acted as if the whole object of Botany were naming and de- 

 scribing species, evidently mistaking the means for the end, and 

 converting the study of the vegetable kingdom into a system of 

 verbal trifling." This little book contained the first notice of Erica 

 ciliaris, which had been lately found by Rev. J. S. Tozer near 

 Truro ; also several new species of Buhiis. A second edition appeared 

 in 1835. 



In 1830 Lindley published his Introduction to the Natural System, 

 and in the same year Sir W. J. Hooker catered for the British botanist 

 with his British Flora, which subsequently went through many 

 editions. Hooker returned to the Linnean system in this hand- 

 book, which, steering a middle course between the voluminous 

 English Flora of Smith and the too concise one of Lindley, was a 

 very meritorious work. A second edition appeared in 1831, a third 

 in 1835, a fourth in 1838, and others later. The account of the 

 Roses is very full and complete, embodying Joseph Woods's valuable 

 paper in vol. xii. of the Linnean Transactions. 



In 1831 the first volume of a Supplement to English Botany 

 appeared, the descriptive part being chiefly by Hooker & W. Borrer. 

 The first part was issued in August, 1829. Three more volumes 

 appeared in 1834, 1843, and 1849, and part of a fifth volume in 

 1865 ; these together form a very valuable addition to the original 

 work, containing as they do a large number of excellent figures and 

 descriptions of British plants, mostly discovered since 1814, with a 



