Mr. J. Miers on the Solanacese. 5 



in the system following the Borraginacece (Hook. Lond. Journ. 

 Bot. iv. 366), which position was confirmed in the following year 

 under the arrangement given by Prof. Lindley (Veg. Kingd. 654), 

 where this order is placed in his Echial alliance with the Borra- 

 ginacecs, Labiatat and others. Tlie views of so experienced a 

 botanist as M. Dunal must ever be received with respect, and 

 will claim support from the mere prestige of his name, as well 

 as from the high reputation of the great work to which he has 

 contributed this important monograph ; but we may be allowed 

 to doubt the propriety of his determination, in placing the Nola- 

 nacece, as a tribe of the Solanacece, without refuting the reasons 

 urged by so many botanists against the justness of this arrange- 

 ment, or offering any arguments in favour of such an alliance. 

 This classification may have originated in the too eager desire 

 entei'tained by M. Dunal, in common with many botanists, to 

 diminish as much as possible the number of natural orders, a 

 very proper and meritorious caution, but when carried to excess, 

 as in this instance, is productive of mischief; for by uniting 

 several families into one, which are composed of very opposite 

 and dissimilar characters, we destroy the very object we attempt 

 to establish, viz. to mark the limits of distinction between differ- 

 ent groups of plants. The selection of a few decided and con- 

 stant characters, that can serve to distinguish each order, tribe oi* 

 section, must infallibly tend to the gi'eatest simplicity of arrange- 

 ment ; and if in accomplishing this purpose, we should thus be 

 led to increase the number of families, in order to ensure the 

 means of certain -discrimination, it is indubitably better to do so, 

 rather than, by pursuing the opposite extreme, to render all fixed 

 landmarks useless. It was upon this conviction that I proposed 

 {hvj. op. iii. 163) to reduce the Scrophulariacea within more cer- 

 tain limits than Mr. Bentham had employed in his admirable 

 monograph of the order in the 10th volume of the ' Prodromus ' 

 of M. DeCandolle, and also to confine the Solanacece within 

 strictly definable bounds. The difficulty of establishing an ob- 

 vious line of demarcation between these two great families, was 

 there discussed at some length, when I showed how unsuccessful 

 had been the attempts of botanists to remedy so manifest a de- 

 fect in the system. Mr. Bentham, it is true, adopted with this 

 view, the plan of associating the few aberrant cases then known, 

 in a distinct tribe, his Suljjiglossidece : the heterogeneous features 

 of that tribe have been fully demonstrated, proving that the at- 

 tempted remedy has been wholly inefficacious : among the many 

 instances that could be cited, it is only necessary to point out, 

 how impossible it is to retain Salpiglvssis, Anthocercis, Schwenkia 

 and others in Scrophulariacece, while Petunia, Nierembergia, and 

 numerous others are placed in Solanacece. At the time of Mr. 

 Bentham's monograph the exceptional genera were fe\\-, but 



