184 



We are also somewhat surprised at seeing a repetition of the 

 doubt as to the occurrence of Cucubalus baccifer in the Isle of Dogs, 

 when the circumstances attending its detection in that locality in the 

 year 1837 are well known to almost every London botanist, not a few 

 of whom have actually beheld it flourishing there. Without prefer- 

 ring any claim on the score of its being indigenous, we may record 

 the late Professor Don's opinion, that the Cucubalus occurs in this, 

 its only known British locality, under circumstances precisely similar 

 to those which accompany its growth on the Continent. 



As the " starred plants" have already formed the subject of some 

 remarks in our pages from the pens of Mr. Lees and the Rev. Mr. 

 Bree (Phytol. iv. 56 and 129), we need only refer to those papers, this 

 being another subject upon which "different men" will ever entertain 

 " different opinions." 



We have omitted to mention that the editors have judiciously re- 

 tained the " Synoptical Table of the Classes, Orders, and Genera of 

 British Plants, arranged according to the Linnaean Method," which 

 will serve as a useful Index to those who are still wedded to that plan 

 of classification ; with regard to the arrangement followed in the body 

 of the work, we must confess that we should have been better satisfied 

 by the adoption of Dr. Lindley's division of the exogens into diclinous, 

 hypogynous, perigynous and epigynous sub-classes, in place of the 

 Thalamiflorae, Calyciflorse, Corolliflorae and Monochlamydeai retained 

 in the Flora. In the natural system, the distinctions of classes are 

 founded upon modifications of the organs of vegetation — such organs 

 being essential to the life of the plant. In like manner, organs of 

 equal importance in the performance of some other function should be 

 selected whereon to found sub-classes; and none are so useful for the 

 purpose as the organs of reproduction, on the agency of which de- 

 pends the perpetuation of the species. All the functions of reproduc- 

 tion are exclusively performed by the stamens and pistils, the floral 

 envelopes evidently bearing a very subordinate part in that ofBce, 

 from the fact of their very frequently being absent, without in the 

 least affecting the fertility of the seeds, even in those plants which 

 habitually produce them. In fact, no combination of calyx or corolla 

 can be properly considered a flower, in the absence of stamens and 

 pistils ; while all the functions required for the perpetuation of the 

 species can be and are performed by stamens and pistils even when 

 the calyx and corolla are wholly absent. We may consequently ex- 

 pect to find fewer exceptions to the characters of groups founded upon 

 the essential organs of reproduction, than in those wherein the floral 



