I860.] REVIEWS. 149 



botany ; such facility is due to the use of the Linnrean method, 

 adopted by Withering only of the current Floras. In fact it 

 requires many years^ practice before we can fully avail ourselves 

 of the Natural System, or even understand the resemblances 

 which are evident to the experienced botanist. 



So Mr. Bentham has adopted that most excellent and precise 

 plan of Lamarck^ Sj called the dichotomous system ; artificial in- 

 deed in its working, but unequalled for the facility it affords to 

 a student of only short experience in his craft. 



We need hardly say that this method consists in dividing two 

 by two any group or class, until the name of the genus or 

 species puts an end to the search. We believe that incipient 

 botanists will reap no small advantage from the use of this plan, 

 and that in some respects it is even superior to the Linnsean, as 

 regards the facilities it offers towards rightly naming a plant. 

 The French are often our teachers in matters of neatness and 

 practical science. 



Next come the English names, which for the first time take 

 precedence of the Latin ; and, moreover, these names are, many 

 of them, of the author's own and his friends^ coinage. 



We think this innovation has led, in many instances, to the 

 needless sacrificing of the older Celtic and Saxon terms, and to 

 too free an importation of hybrid Latinisms. However, it is 

 of some service to see the English names of the Orders standing 

 on one page to face the Latin on the other .^ 



With regard to a complete system of English generic and 

 specific names, we cannot hope or wish to see it adopted. In 

 their present form the specific names remind us of poor M'Gil- 

 livray^s proposition of dubbing some of our birds afresh after 

 the same strict fashion, " Raven Crow," '' Daw Crow," " Rook 

 Crow," etc. etc. ; but we have never met with an ornither who 

 had adopted this nomenclature. Besides, we suspect Mr. Ben- 

 tham's English names are full as difficult to learn as the Latin, 

 without the advantage, which the latter gives us, of following a 

 plant into the foreign Floras. So the beginner would have to 

 go through his teaching all afresh, when he began to make pro- 

 gress in the science. 



Thirdly, the number of species is greatly reduced. At this 

 moment, when so great differences of opinion exist in this respect, 

 it is not for us to censure Mr. Bentham. He has no doubt de- 



