176 GENERA PLANTARUM. [June, 



known genus of plants^ together with their synonyms. The 

 arrangement will be that of the Natural System. Under each 

 natural order there will be, firstly, an analysis of the genera it 

 contains, and afterwards succinct descriptions of them. No work 

 in natural history is more needed : we may add, indeed, that it 

 has become a matter of first necessity, for what with spurious 

 genera formed upon insufficient information, or from erroneous 

 observation, or from mere ignorance, or from an eagerness to 

 seize upon differences which are not distinctions, systematic 

 botany is becoming a chaos. Ruii mole sua. The last number 

 of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society afibrds two striking 

 examples of the way in which botany is encumbered with tech- 

 nical rubbish. Mr. Benjamin, a German botanist, publishes 

 under the new name of Akentra a plant which he distinguishes 

 from Utricularia by the supposed absence of a spur to the corolla. 

 But Mr. Oliver has shown that the species has a remarkably 

 large spur ! and so Akentra goes to the dogs. Prof. Bertoloni 

 receives from south-eastern Africa specimens of a tree producing 

 vegetable butter, and not knowing what it was, but fancying 

 it must be the Butter-tree, which Mungo Park called Shea, he 

 names it Sheadendron, and gravely intimates that it must be the 

 type of a new natural order of plants, which the worthy Professor 

 designated ShecB ! Caruel, however, a young Florentine botanist, 

 has shown that Sheadendron is only a Combreium, and conse- 

 quently a member of one of the best-known natural orders ; 

 and also that it has no more relation to Mungo Park's Shea 

 than an ape to a rhinoceros. Such is the stuff" which Hooker 

 and Bentham have undertaken to clear away. Useful as was the 

 volume of Endlicher on the same subject, it was a mere compila- 

 tion from books, instead of being the result of personal observa- 

 tion, and, from the complexity of its descriptions, could hardly 

 be used except by experienced naturalists. The work now com- 

 menced will be exactly the reverse; that is to say, it will be 

 entirely the result of the personal examination of enormous 

 authentic materials, and from the simplicity of its plan will be 

 intelligible to everybody who is master of botanical rudiments. 

 We venture to predict that, if no unforeseen accident shall pre- 

 vent its completion, its appearance will be the commencement 

 of a new era in systematical botany. 



