16 HE VIEWS. 



cated to Dr. Pickering a curious Leguminous plant from Cali- 

 fornia. The genus Galax, De Candolle has appended to Py- 

 rolacece (tribe Galacece), a view which seems to be confirmed 

 by an unpublished plant from the mountains of North Caro- 

 lina, which, in compliment to an assiduous and well-known 

 American botanist, will bear the name of Shortia galadfolia. 

 The prior portion of the seventh volume (published in 

 1838), as well as the whole of the fifth (1836) and sixth 

 (1837), is exclusively devoted to the immense family of the 

 Compositoe (the class Syngenesia of Linnaeus), which fills 

 more than 1700 closely printed pages, the immediate prepa- 

 ration of which occupied the indefatigable author for seven 

 years ! We may take this family as a fair example of the 

 increase in the number of known species within the last 

 eighty years. The whole number of Syngenesious plants 

 described by Linnaeus in the first edition of the " Species 

 Plantarum " (published in 1753), including the few Compo- 

 sitce referred to other classes, is 555, which is about 150 less 

 than the now described species of the single genus Senecio. 

 We have not time nor space to enumerate the species of the 

 order in succeeding systematic works, so as to show the pro- 

 gressive increase. Suffice it to say that the whole number 

 known to Linnaeus and published during his lifetime cannot 

 exceed 800 species, while the number described by De Can- 

 dolle is in round numbers about 8700, which are disposed in 

 893 genera. If to these we were to add the species which 

 have been since published, or are being published in works 

 now in progress, and also the very numerous unpublished spe- 

 cies which exist in all large collections, making at the same 

 time reasonable allowance for nominal species, the number 

 of Compositor at present known would scarcely fall short of 

 10,000, which considerably exceeds the whole number of both 

 flowering and flowerless plants described by Linnaeus or his 

 contemporaries. Of the 8700 species given by De Can- 

 dolle, more than 3000 are described for the first time in this 

 work. In the general disposition of the order, the clear and 

 simple classification of Lessing is to a great degree adopted. 

 It is first divided into three great series, namely : — 



