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clared, genera of plants, in the sense of scientific botany, were 

 first established. There would probably be more recognition 

 of this dictum if the present work were to be planned anew, 

 and the genera which Linnaeus himself admitted as of Tourne- 

 fort, along with those which modern botanists have restored, 

 could have been attributed to this real founder, without 

 thereby compromising the proper position to hold in respect 

 to herbalistic and ancient names. The second " Genera 

 Plantarum " was that of Liunseus, in 1737, of which the 

 last edition revised by the author himself was that of 1767. 

 The third was that of Jussieu, " secundum ordines naturales 

 disposita," which appeared in the year 1789. That of End- 

 licher — a monument of literary or bibliographical erudition 

 rather than of botanical research — was broujrht out in tlie 

 main between 1836 and 1843, at about the same time with 

 the more unpretending synoptical compilation of Meisuer. 

 These were important in their way. But the " Genera Plan- 

 tarum " of Bentham and Hooker, which began to be issued 

 in the year 1862 and was finished in the spring of the present 

 year, is the lineal successor of the three classical works above 

 mentioned, that of Tournefort representing the botany of the 

 close of the seventeenth century ; that of Linnaeus the first 

 half, and that of Jussieu the latter part, of the eighteenth 

 century. The present work — increased from the one small 

 octavo of Linnaeus to three thick imperial octavo volumes of 

 nearly 1200 pages each — stands in like relation to the nine- 

 teenth century, and is based, like them, or even more than 

 they, upon actual investigation, and upon the comj)arison of 

 a vastly greater number of original types than was formerly 

 possible. 



Unlike its predecessors, however, — and in this respect 

 agreeing with the other great botanical work of the century, 

 the " Prodromus " of De Candolle, — the whole of crypto- 

 gamic botany is omitted. This vast field must be left to 

 specialists. Fries, of Ui)sala, who died a few years ago at 

 a ripe old age, was the last phaenogamic botanist who was at 

 the same time master of one or two cry))togamic orders ; and 

 now even the best of cryptogamists can hardly aspire to more 



