ENDLICHEWS GENERA PLANTARUM. 33 



entitled, " Reflexions sur les Ouvrages Gen^raux de Bota- 

 nique Descriptive." In this M. De Candolle gives the his- 

 tory of the " Prodromus " and its forerunner with consider- 

 able fullness, explains more particularly his editorial trials 

 and burdens, and the reasons why the work could not be 

 made to get on faster, and gives his views as to the most 

 practicable method of combining the labors of the botanist 

 of another generation in the production of the new " System a 

 Vegetabilium " which will be demanded. An estimate is made 

 of the time it must needs require, even with all the available 

 monographers of the day enlisted in the service. The in- 

 creased difficulties, or at least the augmented labor, of sys- 

 tematic botanical work, under the present demands of the 

 science, are indicated. It appears that while in his father's 

 time one could elaborate at the rate of about ten species a 

 day, a faithful monographer now, under the modern require- 

 ments, can seldom exceed three or four hundred species per 

 annum, that is, about a species a day ! We suppose that the 

 case on the whole is not overstated. 



ENDLICHER'S GENERA PLANTARUM. 



This is one of the most important works ^ of the age ; and 

 we are anxious to make it more generally known to the bota- 

 nists of this country. It is not too much to say, that without 

 this, and Lindley's introduction to the Natural System (or 

 some equivalent work), no person who does not possess the 

 advantage of a large library and an extensive general collec- 

 tion of plants, can obtain any correct idea of the present state 

 of systematic botany. The work is published in parts, of 

 eighty pages each, in an imperial octavo or a kind of oblong 

 quarto form, closely printed in double columns. The eleventh 

 fasciculus, which is the last we have received, reaches to page 

 880 ; but probably two or more additional numbers have by 



1 Endlicher's Genera Plantarum secundum Ordines Naturales disposita. 

 Vienna, 1836-40. (American Journal of Science and Arts, xxxix. 176. J 



