314 REVIEWS. [October, 



contributions more serviceable both to scientific observers and to 

 the non-botanical portion of the public. 



Instead of giving the names of the Orders in English^ and the 

 names of the plants in Latin, a well-wisher takes the liberty of 

 advising them to omit the ordinal names. Potato family, Rhu- 

 barb family. Periwinkle family, Fuchsia family, etc., do not con- 

 vey much information to the unlearned, and what little they bear 

 to the initiated is not quite accurate : the Fuchsia, the Peri- 

 winkle, and the Rhubarb, are not the types or representatives of 

 these Orders. 



The common English names of the plants would be generally 

 as well known, and would be more popular than the scientific, 

 which are usually so incorrectly printed in provincial, and even 

 in Metropolitan papers, as to be ridiculous in the eyes of the 

 malevolent, and ludicrous even to good-natured readers. 



A more useful classification would be by locality, viz. aquatics, 

 comprehending all plants which grow in water, as for example, 

 Pondweeds [Potamogeton, Zannichellia, etc.) ; marsh plants: ivy- 

 and celery-leaved Buttercup, etc. ; hedge plants : Honeysuckle, 

 Bindweed, etc. ; sylvan or woodland plants : Periwinkle, etc. ; 

 heath plants (Ericetals) : common Milkwort ; wayside (roadside) 

 or viatical plants : great Celandine (Swallow- wort) ; cornfield 

 plants (agrarial) : Poppies, wild Mustard, etc. ; meadow plants 

 (pratal plants) : Scabious, etc. 



These hints are humbly submitted to the botanical fraternity 

 of Leigh, and to all others who wish to render their observations 

 and researches useful to the community at large. 



Common people or general observers never heed the scientific 

 combination of plants into genera, orders, and classes. They 

 might be induced to observe that water plants (aquatics) have 

 some common mechanical structure ; most of them float, and for 

 this end their organs are furnished with a porous organization, a 

 floating apparatus suitable for their economy, enabling them to 

 live and propagate their species in water. They are also without 

 some of the common appendages of terrestrial plants, such as 

 hairs, down, etc. 



Septal or hedge plants are such as need support ; hence they 

 are supplied with flexible twining stems or with tendrils or 

 claspers, whereby they support themselves on other plants. The 

 Hop, Bryony, Vetch, Pea, etc., belong to this class. 



