474 SYSTEMATIC BOTANY. 



^.SYSTEMATIC BOTANY. 



IN conformity with the character of the earlier sys- 

 tematic literature, the description of new forms still pre- 

 dominates, so that even those most capable of the task 

 are still too much drawn away from the more profound 

 establishment of the System of Plants. But as in this 

 Report the latter direction will principally be kept in view, 

 its brevity will not only be excusable in consequence of a 

 defective knowledge of the literature, of which important 

 papers often reach me too late, but will also be an inten- 

 tional result of the plan of the work. 



In January, 1845, the ninth volume of De Candolle's 

 ProdromusSystematisNaturalis(Paris,8vo) was published, 

 the tenth followed it in April 1846. The families treated 

 of will be mentioned presently. Of Walper's Reper- 

 torium of the diagnoses contained in recent botanical 

 works, (Repertorium Botanices Systematise, Lips., 

 1845-6, 8vo,) the conclusion of the Labiatse appeared in 

 the last part of the third volume ; in the fourth volume, 

 which has not been continued beyond the first fasciculus, 

 the Verbenacese, Myoporinaceae, Selaginacese, Globula- 

 riaceae, and Plantaginacese, and in the fifth volume, sup- 

 plements to the Polypetalous families treated of in the 

 first volume, principally consisting of a reprint of Jussieu's 

 Monograph of the Malpighiacese ; these extracts and re- 

 prints are, however, any thing but accurate, as is well known. 



A new part of Sir W. Hooker's ' Icones Plantarum,' 

 containing 50 plates, has been published. (Part 15, 

 vol. viii, p. 1, Nos. 701-750. London, 1845, 8vo.) 



Leguminosee. Bentham is describing the Mimosese, and has given a com- 

 plete synopsis of the genera and species of this group (Lond. Journal of 

 Botany, 1844-5) ; during the past year, only Inga, with 134 species. He 

 reduces this genus within narrower limits ( = Euinc/a Endl.), and remarks 

 that either the Monadelphous Mmioseae, i. e. one third of all which are 

 known, must be arranged in a single genus, or the formation of the leaves 



