LINDLEY'S NATURAL SYSTEM OF BOTANY. 13 



be safely said that at no previous period could a really useful 

 knowledge of the vegetable kingdom be acquired with so lit- 

 tle labor. In hazarding this remark, it is of course taken for 

 granted that the student will avail himself of all the advan- 

 tages of modern physiological botany and of the natural sys- 

 tem : for so rapid has been the discovery of new and strange 

 forms of structure, for which the artificial arrangement of 

 LinnaBus makes no provision, that the student who takes that 

 system as his guide has indeed a hopeless task before him. 



The essential characters of the orders appear to have been 

 very carefully revised in this edition, as also the remarks 

 upon their affinities, geographical distribution and sensible 

 properties. Did our limits allow, we might call the attention 

 of our readers more particularly to this part of the work. We 

 cannot bring our remarks to a close, however, without sug- 

 gesting what we consider a very desirable improvement upon 

 the manner in which the seed is described, not only in this, but 

 in almost all modern systematic works. It is very necessary 

 that an organ which affords such important characters, both 

 as to its situation in the fruit, and particularly as to its intei'- 

 nal structure, should be described with the greatest possible 

 clearness and precision, and in a uniform manner. The 

 prevalent fault of which we complain is thus noticed, as long 

 ago as the year 1811, by that most acute botanist, the late 

 L. C. Richard. 



" Caesalpinus, Adanson, Jussieu, and Gaertner, always take 

 into view the direction of the embryo relative to the pericarp 

 merely. This method appears to me improper : first, because 

 it does not indicate with precision that direction which is most 

 important to be understood ; secondly, because ihe pericarpic 

 direction of the embryo is often difficult to be ascertained, and 

 is sometimes variable or even wholly different in the seeds of 

 the same fruit. I have already shown by numerous examples 

 in my ' Analyse du Fruit,' that the best method is to indicate 

 the direction of the seed relative to the pericarp, and of the 

 embryo relative to the seed." 



In very many descriptions, the direction of the embryo rel- 

 ative to the seed can only be inferred from the pericarpic 



