626 



The Dutch editor of the work we have before mentioned, in his 

 laudable endeavour to Anglicise the Linnaean Latin, sometimes makes 

 a strange mess of it; thus, "in Syngenesia, he says, 'the males and 

 fructifyers are monstrous.' In Gynandria, ' the males and females 

 have the members monstrous.' In Monoecia, ' the males and fe- 

 males live in the same place, but in different pipes.'' " Laughable as 

 this is, we find its parallel in some of the enumerations of the plants 

 belonging to the various orders of the above unique system. Thus : 



" Euphorbiaceae are a genus of evergreen shrubs, named after Eu- 

 phorbus, physician to Juba, king of Mauritania, who first used this 

 plant in medicine : it has a number of species, which are natives of 

 Mauritius, and were discovered there by Comraerson, viz., Euphorbia 

 a feuilles de Poirier (pyrifolia), peduncle subumbelled ; a feuilles de 

 thym (thymifolia), Tithymalus humilis of Commerson. This noxious 

 plant (which is dichotomous) renders almost sterile the fields it in- 

 fests ; a feuilles d'estragon (dracunloides), umbel trifid. Splendens, 

 the finest of the genus, grows to the height of four feet, and flowers 

 in June and September, branchlets covered with straight spines ; hy- 

 pericifolia, found near St. Louis, leaves subvillose underneath : hirta, 

 this species has some resemblance to the preceding. These (Secur- 

 inega nitida or durissimaj, is the Otaheite myrtle, so called by Com- 

 merson — from securis, a hatchet — because the wood was so hard as 

 to be capable of being manufactured into cutting instruments : an 

 evergreen timber tree, flowers in June or July ; this species, which 

 grows at Mauritius to the height of forty feet, is one of such varied 

 appearance that it is scarcely possible to assign them a character in 

 common ; in cold countries their vegetation is mostly herbaceous ; in 

 hot, fruticose. La ricinelle (Acalypha integrifolia), an evergreen 

 shrub, flowers diaecious, of a pale green colour, and appear in June 

 and September, grows to the height of five feet ; a epis filiformis, 

 Acalypha filiformis. Kirganelia virginea, or Phyllanthus casticus, 

 vulgo bois de demoiselle), is a pretty little tree, six or seven feet 

 high, a genus of the chilotydones, but of the family of the Euphor- 

 bias : fruit an oval red berry, which finally becomes black. Another 

 species is found : the Croton Mauritanum and aromaticum are both 

 indigenous to the Mauritius. Gluttier a feuilles obtuses (Sapium ob- 

 tusifolium), leaves cuneiform ; discovered by Commerson. To these 

 may be added, Phyllanlhe en buisson (dumetosa) ; found by Com- 

 merson at Rodriguez." — p. 356. 



The above quotation needs no comment : indeed, if our readers 

 understand some parts of it, we candidly confess it is more than we 



