2 ADDRESS OP THE EDITOR. [January, 



Our grateful business is now to lay before our readers a state- 

 ment of the botanical results of the past twelve months. 



During the preceding year two new works on our native plants 

 have been published. British botanists may be congratulated, 

 not only on the extent, but also on the variety and excellence of 

 their literature. There is no room for saying more on this head ; 

 and if there was, it is unnecessary. One of the works alluded to 

 has been repeatedly noticed in our pages, and is in the hands of 

 many of our readers ; and a notice of the other is expected from 

 a friendly correspondent. When it comes to hand, we shall have 

 much pleasure in submitting it to publicity. " Better late than 

 never.^^ Both of these works profess to be plainer in style, or in 

 some respect or other better adapted to the wants of the un- 

 learned on scientific subjects, than the many excellent works we 

 previously possessed. But those for whose use they were com- 

 piled, are better judges of their merits in this respect; and to 

 their judgment they are therefore submitted. 



The most important announcement to be made here is the 

 publication of Professor Agardh's elaborate work on systematic 

 botany, or, a new Theory of Classification. This is proba- 

 bly the most important continbution to botanical science issued 

 since the days of Jussieu. It is not to be expected that all, or 

 even most botanists will appreciate this work so highly as the 

 writer of this notice is disposed to do. It is not probable that 

 many botanists will undergo the heavy task of perusing and 

 mastering its contents. Of those who may read it, few, it is ap- 

 prehended, will abandon the methods with which they are con- 

 versant, and adopt, learn, and practise, an entirely new arrange- 

 ment. We are not so sanguine as to predict that the work will 

 be universally received as a satisfactory solution of the vexata 

 qucestio, the bete noire of botany, "What is a Natiu-al System?" 

 But the attempt to solve the question is at least laudable, and it 

 is a step in the right direction. 



The readers of the ' Phytologist' may look, at no distant 

 period, for a statement of the contents of this scientific work. 

 If we be unable to judge of its merits, we can, at least, tell our 

 friends what it is about. It would be more satisfactory to the 

 botanical public if the great lights of the age, the learned Pro- 

 fessors of Botany in London, Edinburgh, and Cambridge, would 

 condescend to enlighten us on this new system of classifying 



