14 REVIEWS. 



direction, or, which is still more objectionable, the same struc- 

 ture is described by very different language in different in- 

 stances, thus rendering unnecessarily complicated an investi- 

 gation which of itself is not usually difficult. We may adduce 

 as an example the five orders comprised in the alliance Ra- 

 nales, which stands at the commencement of Dr. Lindley's 

 treatise. AVe have no means of ascertaining, from the essen- 

 tial character of any one of these orders, either the spermic 

 direction and position of the embryo, or the situation of the 

 chalaza and micropyle relative to the hilum, from which the 

 former may be inferred. It is commonly stated that the em- 

 bryo is situated at the base of the albumen ; but it is not 

 specified whether the radicle is next the hilum (as in Pa- 

 paveracece, Nymphceacece, etc.), or points in the opposite di- 

 rection (as in Neliimhiaceve and Cabombacece) ; a matter of 

 essential importance, since the seeds result in the one case 

 from the ripening of anatropous, and in the other of orthotro- 

 pous, ovules. 



The students of botany in this country are greatly indebted 

 to the learned editor and the enterprising publishers of the 

 first American edition of this work. May we hope to have 

 our obligations increased by the reprint of this greatly im- 

 proved edition ? 



