86 NOTE ON THE GENERA CUPHEANTHUS AND PUNICA. 
would probably have to combine very many universally-recognized 
species, as has indeed been done, franchement et hardiment, by Mr. 
Bentham in his * Handbook of the British Flora.’ Take, for example, 
two such closely-allied plants as Bupleurum rotundifolium, L., and B 
protractum, Hffmg. and Lk.; these absolutely differ only by the 
greater or less number of kai and by the smooth or tuberculate 
fruit. Now, a depauperate inflorescence is certainly no very strong 
character, and the fruits of Umbellifers are in several instances (e. g. 
typical Cachrys pterochlæna, De Cand., et ejusdem var. leiocarpa, 
Cosson), variable as to surface. The examination of two such plants 
as those I have just alluded to will make any reflecting, person ponder 
over Mr. Darwin’s most acute query as to what is meant by affinity, if 
not community of descent ; and the concluding sentence quoted from 
Fries will show that, though willing enough to assent (by anticipation) 
to this hypothesis, he has stated the objection which will always be 
urged against it by adversaries, that it is incapable of proof; that is to 
say, from an /ypothesis it can, by its nature, never become a recognized 
fact in science. Now, hypotheses involving unfamiliar assumptions, or 
which are primd facie very startling, are perhaps for the most part 
welcomed or rejected rather according to the particular bias of each 
particular thinker’s mind than from other considerations. 
In making the foregoing remarks, it is scarcely necessary for me to 
disclaim any disrespect towards the eminent authors whose opinions I 
dissent from. I do not, of course, pretend to possess a tithe of their 
earning, experience, or varied opportunities for study. But as in 
politics and religion, so in scientific questions, we find the most single- 
minded desire to seek truth, the acutest mental powers, and the ripest 
experience, consistent with the most widely-divergent views; and 
many years’ unremitting devotion to botanical studies gives me, I hope, 
a claim to state my own conclusions. 
Whampoa, S. China, 10th October, 1865. 
NOTE ON THE GENERA CUPHEANTHUS AND PUNICA. 
In my ‘Flora of the Viti Islands,’ p. 76 in adnot., I described a 
genus from New Caledonia, which towards the end of last century had 
been discovered by Anderson, but never before been made known. 
