12 REVIEWS. 



Conifei'ce, etc., we have Crnciacece, Umhellacea', and Cona- 

 cece. These are, however, very propei'ly abandoned in the 

 work before us, in which the author inclines to give up the 

 old and familiar names of these orders, and to substitute those 

 formed in the customary manner from well-known genera. 

 Bmssicacece^ Ajnacece, and PinacecG may certainly be as good 

 names as any other when we once get accustomed to them, 

 but it seems hardly necessary to make any change in names 

 of this kind. Dr. Lindley, as we have already seen, gives to 

 the names of Alliances the termination «/f .s, and to groups that 

 of osce. The chief advantage of this system is, that the name 

 of any group at once indicates its rank and importance. 



The value of this work is greatly increased by the complete 

 list of genera (so far as known at the time of publication), 

 with the princij)al synonyms, appended to each order and 

 properly arranged under their several suborders, sections, etc. 

 This laborious and difficult task is upon the whole very faith- 

 fully executed. We observe, however, several errors, typo- 

 graphical and otherwise, which are not noticed in the appen- 

 dix ; and in a few instances the same genus is referred to two 

 different orders. The whole catalogue will doubtless be ren- 

 dered more perfectly accurate in a future edition. 



The whole number of genera comprised in this enumera- 

 tion, exclusive of synonyms, is 7840. Sprengel's " Systema 

 Vegetabilium," which was finished in 1827, contains (exclu- 

 sive of the appendix) only 3593 genera, or not quite half the 

 number now known ; while the twelfth edition of " Systema 

 Nature " (the last of Linnaeus himself) comprises 1228 

 genera, or only about a third more than are now known in 

 a single family. 



This great and rapid increase is perhaps chiefly owing to 

 the discovery of new plants ; but it is also attributable in a 

 good degree to the more accurate knowledge of those already 

 known. In either case, it is the natural result of the progress 

 of discovery ; and instead of embarrassing the student, as is 

 often supposed, does in reality render the study of the science 

 much more clear and satisfactory. Notwithstanding the 

 great increase of genera within the last few years, it may 



