Dr. Lindley’s Natural System of Botany. 301 
as well as to distinguish such names from those of genera in the plu- 
ral number, the termination ace@ is given to orders, and that of ee 
to suborders, &c. ‘The advantages of uniformity in this respect are 
manifest, and Dr. Lindley therefore insists upon the adoption of the 
rule in all cases. In the Key to Botany, published the year previ- 
ous to the appearance of the second edition of the present work, the 
termination in acee is employed, not only in names of orders formed 
those of genera, but also in the few still in use which relate to 
some peculiarity in the habit of the family. Thus, instead of Cru- 
cifere, Umbellifere, Conifere, &c. we have Cruciacee, Umbella- 
cee, and Conacee. These are, however, very properly abandoned 
in the work before us, in which the author inclines to give up the 
old and familiar names of these orders, and to substitute those formed 
in the customary manner from well known genera. Brassicaceae, 
Apiacee and Pinacee may certainly be as good names as any other 
when we once get accustomed to them, but it seems hardly neces- 
sary to make any change in the case of names of this kind. Dr. 
Lindley, as we have already seen, gives to the names of Alliances 
the termination ales, and to the groups that of ose. The chief ad- 
vantage of this system is, that the name of any group at once indi- 
cates its rank and importance. 
The value of this work is greatly increased by the complete list 
of genera, (so far as known at the time of its publication,) with the 
principal synonyms, appended to each order and properly arranged 
under their several sub-orders, sections, &c. This laborious and 
difficult task is upon the whole very faithfully executed. We ob- 
"serve, however, several errors, typographical and otherwise, which 
are not noticed in the appendix, and in a few instances the same 
«enus is referred to two different orders. ‘The whole catalogue will 
doubtless be rendered more perfectly accurate in a future edition. 
The whole number of genera comprised in this enumeration, ex- 
clusive of synonyms, is 7840. Sprengel’s Systema Vegetabilium, 
which was finished in 1827, contains (exclusive of the appendix) 
only 3593 genera, or not quite half the number now known; while 
the 12th edition of Systema Nature (the last of Linneus himself) 
comprises 1228 genera, or only about a third more than are now 
known in a single family. 
This great and rapid increase is perhaps chiefly owing to the dis- 
covery of new plants ; but it is also attributable in a good degree to 
the more accurate knowledge of those already known. In either 
