181 



remark, that we entirely concur in the opinion expressed in the fol- 

 lowing quotation, namely, that there is less violence done to the laws 

 of Nature by " combining too much, than by subdivision, unless where 

 there is an anatomical or physiological distinction." Many a so- 

 called species has in modern days been founded upon some trifling 

 " distinction without a difference," and apparently for no other earthly 

 reason than a morbid wish on the part of its founder to see his name 

 tacked on to the fag-end of some barbarous cognomen, which, perhaps, 

 so far as classical accuracy is concerned, is " neither fish, nor flesh, 

 nor good red herring." 



The editors, in giving their reasons for adopting the combination 

 plan in preference to the homoeopathic process of infinitesimal divi- 

 sion, observe that— 



" So many species have been, of late years, introduced from the 

 Continent with seed-corn, or have escaped from our gardens, and so 

 many of our former well-known species have been split into two or 

 more, that it has been deemed proper to extend, in several instances, 

 the characters of both the genera and species, introducing frequently 

 a notice of the more minute parts which a practised botanist requires 

 to examine, but which a student may omit, if his immediate object be 

 to attain a knowledge of the name, until he has advanced in the study. 

 Rarely, however, have the genera or species been made to depend on 

 such minute characters, and therefore few alterations have been pro- 

 posed on the limits of either one or other fiom what will be found in 

 former editions : when such alteration has taken place in the former, 

 it is solely from a desire of simplifying the generic characters. 



" What is a genus, or what is a species, is a point upon which 

 scarcely two botanists are agreed at the present day. With regard to 

 the former, however much it may be necessary to subdivide in a sys- 

 tem comprehending the known plants of the whole world, so as to 

 retain only a limited number of species in each Genus, the same does 

 not apply to a local Flora ; and it is there preferable to constitute 

 sections or subgenera, ])articularly when the limiting characters are 

 inconstant, difficult, or obscure. A species cannot be so treated : it 

 is formed, by our Maker, as essentially distinct from all other species, 

 as man is from the brute creation ; it can neither for convenience be 

 united with others, nor be split into several ; but the difficulty is to 

 ascertain what is such a primitive or natural species ; and it is here 

 so great a difference of opinion exists. Some pronounce a species to 

 be distinct if it presents a different habit or appearance to the eye, 

 particularly if this be constant, although often indefinable : others 



