1859.] REVIEW. 73 



tany ! How do the learned translate these terms ? The meaning 

 of the title may be apprehended by reading the book. Probably 

 the key to this puzzle may lie in the words structm'(S normas 

 and evolutiohis gradus, which we venture to translate " normal 

 structure" and "progressive development/' or '^organization and 

 evolution.'^ 



A poet alone can translate a poet. Mutatis mutandis, a syste- 

 matist or taxonomist alone can translate a work on taxonomy or 

 system. We have done our best, and the best cannot do more. 



" Res ardua, vetustis novitatem dare, novis aiictoritatem, obscui'is lucem, dubiis 

 fidem, omnibus vero naturam et naturse suse omnia." — Plin. Hist. Natur. 



This is the motto which our author prefixes to his book, which 

 may be loosely translated as under : " It is a difficult matter to 

 represent old facts in a new fashion, to get authority and credit 

 for unheard, obscure novelties, to procure attention to doubtful 

 subjects, or to be natural in all, and to represent all things con- 

 sistently with their own nature." 



The author observes that there is a very general complaint, viz. 

 that in all our systems (called Natural by courtesy) both orders 

 and species find themselves in different and distant parts of the 

 same systems; or, to state the author's meaning by examples, 

 Endlicher and Bartling do not arrange the Orders in exactly the 

 same method. Nor do Lindley and Balfour. The arrangement 

 of orders, genera, and species adopted by one botanist is modified 

 or changed, or altogether upset, by another. 



The learned professor states that the reason usually assigned 

 for this discrepancy among systematists, and sometimes observ- 

 able in the same author himself, is, that some of the Orders are 

 imperfect, or some species are wanting to complete the series. 

 Our author does not think that this is the sole cause of the diver- 

 sity of arrangements, and asks. If the principles of the entire 

 system of plants are consistent, how is it that they can be changed 

 in the placing of the individual Orders ? 



Our author's work is divided into two parts : — 1. Methodology, 

 or systematic arrangement. 2. The iiatnral series of phanero- 

 gamous families. 



The first portion may be considered as an introduction to the 

 whole ; it comprises xcv. pages. 



The Natural Orders occupy 404 pages. 



N. S. VOL. 111. L 



