2 Mr. J. Miers on the Sokuacete. 



be felt on the announcement, tliat M. Dunal was occupied in ela- 

 borating a monograph of the family for the ' Prodromus.' This 

 ought, in regular order, to have preceded the Scrophulariacece, 

 and to have appeared seven years ago : the intervening delay has 

 therefore served only to increase a general anticipation of greater 

 perfection in a work, proceeding from the hand of one who had 

 written on the genera of the family and their affinities thirty-five 

 years since, and who had made this order an object of his study 

 during a great portion of his life. It cannot be concealed that 

 its appearance has not answered the universal expectation, and 

 that a feeling of disappointment has been generally felt among 

 botanists on its perusal. All will unite in their acknowledge- 

 ment to M. Dunal for the production of this laborious work, 

 and will willingly excuse a large share of its imperfections, when 

 it is known, that in his anxious endeavours to bring it to a close, 

 he has laboured beyond his physical powers, persevering in this 

 task under the pressure of long and continued illness. Still it 

 is to be regretted, that circumstances should have opei-ated to 

 keep its distinguished author in ignorance of the facts and rea- 

 sonings that have been published within the last few years. If, 

 therefore, I now proceed to point out several inconsistencies in 

 the distribution exhibited in this volume, I can truly affirm, that 

 it is not from any desire to criticize the labours of M. Dunal, but 

 to justify what is due to the advancement of science, and to sup- 

 port the inferences drawn and the facts collected by me towards 

 the history of this family. 



The great object of all scientific arrangement is to group 

 together individuals possessing some common conspicuous fea- 

 tures, by which they may be readily distinguished : these may 

 again be subdivided by other partial characters into sections and 

 subsections, but all such characters should be clearly definable. 



The ordinal character of the Solanacece, as given by M. Dunal, 

 like that of his predecessors, falls very far short of this deside- 

 ratum, and the Conspectus of the classification is deficient of 

 those tangible features that should serve the purpose of discri- 

 mination. Its limits are by far too general, embracing within 

 its scope individuals belonging to other orders. In the cha- 

 racter of the corolla, for instance, the more important features 

 are neglected or merely hinted at, while others more especially 

 selected are frequent among Scrophulariacea and other orders : 

 hence they are of little value for distinguishing the precise family 

 to which species belong. In the characters given of the struc- 

 ture of the seed and embryo, many peculiarities are altogether 

 omitted, while others are inaccurately described : these will be 

 more particularly noticed presetitly. In his Conspectus, M. Dunal 

 divides the family into two tribes, the Nolanem and the Solanea, 



