ENDLICHER' S GENERA PLANTARUM. 35 



which is the latest complete work in which the known genera 

 are characterized. He gives the date of the publication of 

 each genus, and references to the principal figures. The whole 

 number of the genera described is 4159. 



The " Genera Plantarum secundum Ordines Naturales dis- 

 posita " of the immortal Jussieu, with which a new era in bot- 

 any commenced, appeared in the year 1789. This work has 

 never been reprinted in France, and but once out of it, and is 

 now very scarce. Until the commencement of Dr. Endlicher's 

 work, a period of about half a century, it has remained the 

 only Genera Plantarum according to the natural system. 

 There is but one living botanist upon whom the task of pre- 

 paring a new Genera of Plants would seem most appropriately 

 to devolve ; but since it cannot be expected from that quar- 

 ter, we are glad it has been undertaken, and we may almost 

 say completed, by so learned and careful a botanist as Dr. 

 Endlicher. The onlv fault we have to notice is, that there 

 is no mode of distinguishing directly the generic characters, 

 which are compiled altogether from preceding authors, from 

 those drawn from the plants themselves. An author can only 

 be considered responsible for the latter ; yet unless there be 

 some means of distinguishing those which have been verified 

 from the remainder, he becomes somewhat implicated in the 

 mistakes of his predecessors. Dr. Endlicher being scarcely 

 less distinguished as a classical scholar than as a botanist, this 

 work is a perfect model of the classical style. 



Simultaneously with this work, which it is in part intended 

 to illustrate, the author is publishing an " Iconographia Ge- 

 nerum Plantarum." It appears in quarto parts, with about 

 twelve uncolored plates in each, executed in a very superior 

 manner, with full analyses, which leave nothing to be desired 

 in this respect. Seven or eight parts are already published. 

 It is the cheapest illustrated work of the kind with which we 

 are acquainted, and at the same time one of the very best. 



