710 



tbeiv vegetable compatriots, or with the pardonable vanity of showing how many fine 

 plants grow in the author's country, but in order that the great laws of the distribu- 

 tion of organized beings on the surface of our globe may be discovered and developed ; 

 and the construction of systematic arrangements, not framed solely for the ascertain- 

 ing of the natural alliances of families, important as such object is, but also with the 

 view of discovering the great laws which doubtless regulate those alliances equally in 

 the animal and vegetable kingdoms/' — p. 19. 



It has always appeared to us that those who are the loudest in their 

 outcries against the Linnaean system, must be unacquainted with, or 

 to say the least, forgetful of, what Professor Forbes has not omitted to 

 notice, namely, the well-estabhshed fact, that while Linnaeus was en- 

 deavouring to perfect his artificial system, as a means whereby a chao- 

 tic mass of materials might be reduced to order, he was no less assi- 

 duously labouring to discover the true laws of a natural arrangement, 

 and this, he ever insisted, ought to be the grand aim of the researches 

 of every botanist. Thus, in his ' Philosophia Botanica,' after enume- 

 rating the different systems and methods of his predecessors and con- 

 temporaries, as well as his own sexual system, and another method 

 founded on the caly^, he observes : — " The fragments of a natural 

 method are studiously to be sought for. This should be the grand 

 desideratum with every botanist : " the necessity for endeavouring to 

 attain this desideratum being enforced in other parts of the same work. 

 He then proposes what he modestly calls the fragments of a natural 

 method : these exhibit all the genera known to the author arranged in 

 sixty-eight orders. There is, moreover, abundant evidence on record 

 to prove that Linnaeus himself was the founder of that system which 

 has since been so much improved by the eminent botanists who have 

 turned their attention to this branch of the science : such was the ex- 

 pressed opinion of the late Sir Joseph Banks ; and Bernard de Jussieu, 

 with all the candour of a great mind, says, in a letter to Linnaeus, — 

 " You may now devote yourself entirely to the service of Flora, and 

 lay open more completely the path you have pointed out, so as at 

 length to bring to perfection a natural method of classification, which 

 is what all lovers of Botany wish and expect." 



We find that we have been strangely led away from the immediate 

 subject of the present notice by this discussion ; but we trust the di- 

 gression needs no apology. In conclusion, we can honestly say that 

 we heartily recommend Mr. Lees's very neat little book, to all who 

 feel an interest in the subject of the geographical distribution of Bri- 

 tish plants, and more especially to the botanical visitants of Malvern. 



