280 REVIEWS. 



nearer the fact than would be supposed, as the cells of the 

 ovary actually do taper up into the subulate style (as it has 

 always and most naturally been termed), so that in the ma- 

 ture capsule the upper tails of the seeds reach up to within a 

 short distance of the small stigma. 



In a linear order it has not been practicable to approxi- 

 mate the Convalhirlece of the first series with the Uvu/ariece 

 of the second. The division of Uvularia gives a gratifying 

 opportunity of dedicating a New England genus to the mem- 

 ory of one of the best of New England botanists, the late 

 William Oakes {Oakesia sessilifolla, with its relative of the 

 southern mountains, O. jjuherula) ; but he would not have 

 relished the dismemberment of the Linnoean genus upon the 

 characters, good as they are, neither in fact do we. The 

 formation of the tribe Fuccece, of Yucca and Hesperaloe, 

 strikes us as excellent ; and it seems right not to adopt the 

 supposed second species of Hesperaloe until it is better 

 known. Its principal distinctions (longer anthers and shorter 

 style) may indicate heterogone dimorphism, which would be 

 a novelty in the order. 



Tribe JVolinecB, of the first series, must be regarded as an 

 excellent group, composed of Dasylirion and Nolina ; and it 

 is gratifying to find that the outlying genus Nolina, founded 

 long ago on a single Georgian species, is the northern repre- 

 sentative of a considerable Texano-jMexican group, named 

 Beaucarnea. It were to be wished that the plan of this Re- 

 vision had allowed more citation of generic synonymy, and 

 that it had been more explicitly stated that Beaucarnea is only 

 Nolina. This union, indeed, is one of the happy hits of the 

 present monograph. 



As has been suspected, the Californian /Scha?))olirion album 

 of Durand proves to be quite distinct from the Atlantic 

 species on which that genus was founded. So Mr. AVatson 

 has embraced the opportunity, here offered, to dedicate a 

 peculiar Californian genus to Judge Hastings — a judicious 

 patron both of botanical and legal learning. Except for his 

 exertions, his own liberality, and his direction of the liberality 

 of others, we could not have had the '' Botany of California," 



