890 



less variable than that of the other parts of the flower. I can assure 

 Mr. Edmonston from personal experience, that the dissection of seeds 

 is by no means so difficult as he considers it ; that a little practice 

 will enable him to dissect most seeds; and that, except in very mi- 

 nute ones, a common pocket lens will be sufficient for his purpose. I 

 grant that some patience is requisite to do this well. 



We now arrive at a very grave charge against the natui'al system 

 — the indefiniteness of its groups ; and Mr. Edmonston has chosen 

 Ranunculaceae as the subject of his animadversions, finding no cha- 

 racter so definite as the one stamen of Linnaeus's Monandria. Now 

 it is curious that the very indefinite characters of Ranunculaceae may 

 be included in a definition to which scarcely any (certainly not more 

 than in the Linnsean classes) exceptions can be found. T give this 

 definition from Lindley's ' Introduction to the Natural System,' p. 6. 

 "Polypetalous dicotyledons with hypogynous stamens, anthers bursting 

 by long slits, several distinct simple carpella, exstipulate leaves sheath- 

 ing at the base, solid albumen and seeds without arillus." Lindley 

 gives the following exceptions or anomalies. " In Garidella and Ni- 

 gella the carpella cohere more or less. In Thalictrum, some species of 

 Clematis and some other genera, there are no petals. Paeonia has a 

 pei'sistent calyx." Now does it not strike Mr. Edmonston as exceed- 

 ingly improper that plants possessing a corolla should be placed in 

 the same Linnaean genus with those in which it is totally wanting ! ! 

 We must surely complain of the genus before we find fault with the 

 order. I would suggest the revision of the genus to Mr. Edmonston. 



In Garidella and Nigella it is true that the carpels are more or less 

 coherent. I do not happen to have access to detailed descriptions of 

 any species of these genera ; but, if I am not mistaken, the degree of 

 cohesion of the carpels varies very greatly in different species, so that 

 in some they are almost distinct. In Acteea I find that the carpella 

 are reduced to one, and that one has taken a baccate form, exactly as 

 some Leguminosse are drupaceous. 



Mr. Edmonston has unfortunately fallen into the error of taking the 

 detailed descriptions of the natural orders for their distinctive charac- 

 ter; and he has found in the former that degree of indefiniteness which 

 might be expected in giving a detailed account of the structure of a 

 large group of plants. Mr. Edmonston, in criticising some expres- 

 sions of Dr. Lindley, with reference to the two great systems, says, — 

 " Now if it be the case that the student must go through the same 

 process — examine the same parts — in the one as in the other system, 

 it will be singular if the amount of knowledge is not equal. In fact 



