40 ILLUSTRATIONS OF INDIAN BOTANY. 



their real affinities, it becomes a curious and interesfing^, though by no means easy enquiry, to 

 trace the various attempts that have been made by ditferent authors, to construct a natural 

 arrangement of these plants while excluding this their only truly natural and constant bond of 

 onion. Some of these arrangements I shall endeavour to exhibit, partly in support of the asser- 

 tion advanced, that no two Botanists are agreed on these affinities, but principally to prove that 

 so long as we take the different degrees of develonment of the flower as the basis of our natural 

 system of iJotany, we budd on a bad and unstable foundation. 



Lindley has employed this character, in the construction of his JlUance Silenales, the per- 

 fectionofw-^bich, however, through his not perceiving the full value of his character, "embryo 

 rolled round mealy albumen," he has marred, by the introduction of Tamarisclneae (an order in 



Iton tLVL^h l"^ Th-^^i' \'rl'^y^^'' **» -"'«d) "^ th« one side and the exclusion of Flcoi- 

 rfe«e on the other. This last he has m my opinion most injudiciously placed in his alliance 



pad^tt ''' " "' ""'" '^'' ^ ^^^ '^''''^'^ ''' ^'^''' ^^^"^ neither .e'pig'ynous nor itrplaclnta: 

 ^...T^^^"^^'''''-"ff'^¥P''\^P'^^^°"'^'^^''''^'^^^^P^rf^^^ character and ought to 



ceae UleceOraceae Ficoidaceae, and perhaps Surianaceae. The remaining orders agreein- in this 

 iney are, Amaianlaceae, C/ienopodiaceae, Phytolaccaceae, Polv^onene Petiverareap SrLvi,/ 



Monochlamydeae. 



and the remaining order iu his fourth class 



easily eUt^r ^^--^- cannot be so 



^illshowLw widely tr^iouo^^^^^^^^^ orders, numbered as they stand in his Conspectus, 



235 ^marantaceae-^isel^Tr^^^^^^^^ P/folacceae^m Polyoo.eae^ 



absence of albumen in the last seer^frpv.h^f^^ ^ '^^''"'"' ' '-'63- A7a//;;e«e. The 



ter Chenopodeae ranks NrioTJl?±l ^T, ^^^^^^^^P' '" Endlicher's Genera Plan- 



quent parts of the work have not vet rpapC^ f ^u c" i"'-^°^^2/^'^^^ -^7. (The subse- 

 Oleraceae -.the last three form plrt of h^Hi"r^~^\' ^,?' ^<^^\?{^^--e orders firm his class 

 our Prodromus referred to cZZhyll^nl ^j,^,^"'-^^^/^^^"^ uhich includes all the genera in 

 the name of I'etragonlaceaeLShfZr^^^^^ Fmideae and Paronycluaceae Under 



plHcing them betvv^een ^™^^^^^^^^^ «"d '^'f°" ^° Endlicher's Oleraoeae 



and Polygoneae on the other ^henopodiaceae on the one side and Phytolacceae 



DeCandolle 



d) in Cnlycflorae; and the remainder, those referau.. .. 



thus distributing them all over 



P/«„/." u . ^ - -' "'-*'=^ i"« neariina " Halunot.,1 °5^^"y; ^^^ranges no fewer than 



PlnnU altogether untramelled by system or a^rbifrW'^^'"' ^^'^^^^-^ «"^ Achlamydeous 

 niarkable, that of 1 1 orders possessing hi^ ^tructure U i'"^"^ ""^ ""^ ^^^'^ ^"^ ^ere, if is re- 

 J,de-.9are, w..h two exceptions, placed timmedhte'~r ^"^'' ^^e embry^ on one 



and grouped 



