182 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
aspeet of things, to an insight into their reality. 1t was Robert Brown 
who, above all others, shone as the leading star, by habitually, as it 
were, and in a manner quite unprecedented, throwing a flood of light 
over the path pursued by him in his researches into obscurities, enig- 
mas, and difficulties. In this way the searching eye of the observer 
frequently ranged, in different directions, to even the remotest confines of 
the vegetable kingdom ; aud whoever would follow the master through 
the windings of this labyrinth, was sure to carry home with him an 
inexhaustible treasure of facts. Robert Brown applied to the more 
elaborate characteristic of families and genera the state of the flower, 
while yet in the bud ; the relative direction and position of the parts of 
the flower towards the axis ; the varied nature and development of the 
inflorescence ; the properties of the anther and pollen; the position 
and progress of the development of the ovulum ; the nature of the seed 
and the leaf-bud, &e., thus giving a degree of precision to the natural 
system, which had been unattainable before." 
It was at this point of time that Zuccarini began to take an active 
part in botanical science, and especially in the progress of the natural 
system. His first labours were applied in working out the original notes 
of von Martius, for the first volume of the ** Nova Genera et Species 
Plantarum Brasiliensium.” The sentiments of our friend, on the occasion, 
are best expressed by the following passage, which I extract from the pre- 
face of that noble work. It is dated so far back as October 1822 :— 
** Quia vero, ut ipse solus, quippe aliis — Reds distesvas reus 
hune elaborarem, tempus non vacavit, d 
juvenis, Zuccarini, Monacensis, botanicarum eclisetiputilt Adjunctus, 
analyses repetendas, plantarum earumque partium picturam curandam, 
descriptiones a me relatas in ordinem redigendas et supplendas, totum- 
que opus mecum perficiendum suscepit. Huic igitur amatores bota- 
nices magnam hujus operis partem debent, pro cujus diligentia et eura 
pua publicas agere me animus impellit, 
“ The systematic activity alluded to above, was continued by Zuc- 
carini in a series of dissertations, incorporated in the transactions 
of our Academy, treating detached genera or families monogra- 
world, and deposited in botanic gardens, or in herbariums. Of the 
former description are our colleague’s labours in connection with 
