54 Jour)ial of Travel and Natural History 



the only "Species" of the current epoch. That .si)ares readers 

 trouble in turning over works, and searching continually in tables. 

 The true and very complicated relations of groups, the one with 

 the other, are, we have said reserved ; and the conclusion of the 

 work may place them better in evidence, than transpositions made 

 by degrees in the series of families. 



As regards the manner in which the Genera are grouped in 

 tribes and families, we prefer the new Genera to that of Endlicher. 

 The exposition is clearer and more convenient in certain 

 respects. For example, Messrs Bentham and Hooker do not 

 admit groups annexed in a vague way to families, with a tribal 

 termination without being tribes. When one hesitates as to the 

 place or nature of a group, the simplest mode of indicating it is to 

 mark it with a point of interrogation. Neither embarassment nor 

 equivocation result from that ; while, for instance, the Coriarise of 

 Endlicher, annexed to the Malpighiaceae, without number of family 

 or tribe; the Grubbiacese, Nyssacese, Antholobeae, &c., annexed 

 in the same manner to the Santalaceas, and many others, are 

 not easy to comprehend and cite. Some authors mention them 

 as families of Endlicher, others as tribes. The synonymy be- 

 comes complicated by these middle terms ; and one no longer 

 recognises in this case the usually clear treatment of the learned 

 German. 



The synoptic tables of Messrs Bentham and Hooker are nume- 

 rous and ably done. One finds them at each step of the classifica- 

 tion, for the divisions of classes, cohorts, and families. They take 

 up little space, and, moreover, appear in perfect conformity with the 

 text, which is not the case in all books. These resumes will be 

 found very convenient. The rather original innovation by our 

 authors of indicating, separately and distinctly, the exceptions and 

 anomalies which present themselves in the Genera, whether in the 

 families or cohorts, -will be appreciated. The botanist who seeks 

 to determine a plant, and who, perhaps, holds in his hand an 

 exceptional form, is put on his guard; at the same time, the 

 characters of tlie groups are abridged. They are less encumbered 

 with these vel which commonly lengthen and confuse them. It is 

 practical ; only the reader must not forget that the exceptions fall 

 within the group, and that in reality a character is composed of the 

 rule with the exceptions ; whence it results that one ought not, for 

 example, to transcribe the character without the exceptions, in the 

 same way as he must not transcribe a specific phrase of the Prodro- 



