78 BE VIEWS. 



rhai^lie " (p. 130). No attentive student could fail to recog- 

 nize the difference, especially in the families cited ( Cruciferce 

 and Caryoj)hyllacece). 



Eipening must be regarded in a remarkably broad sense 

 when it is stated with emphasis, " that the distinction between 

 endocarps and epicarps, in the common stone-fruits, arises 

 entirely during the ripening of fruit." Also : " it is well 

 known that the easy separation of the pulj) from the stone is 

 a sign of ripeness." When are cling-stone peaches ripe ? 

 Again : " In Taxus . . . during the ripening of the seed a 

 succulent cup-like envelope grows up around it" (p. 136). Is 

 ripening synonymous wdth the formation and growth, as well 

 as the maturing of the fruit ? 



Lindley's system of the classification and nomenclature of 

 fruits is adopted, with some modifications. It is well to have 

 such a system, as an analysis of the diversities of structure ; 

 but of the thirty-six kinds so carefully defined and named 

 only fifteen or sixteen are ever used in descriptive botany, or 

 ever will be, it is devoutly hoped. There is much inconven- 

 ience in practice, and little advantage in designating every 

 possible modification of the same organ or set of organs by a 

 distinct substantive name, or in distinguishing by separate 

 technical names fruits formed of a simj^le ovary from those 

 of a compound ovary, or fruits with an adherent from those 

 with a free ovary. Why not call the gooseberry and the 

 grape equally a berry, instead of restricting this name to the 

 former and naming the latter a nuculanium ; and why name 

 the pod of an Iris a dii^lotegia^ while that of a Lily is called 

 a capsule f And while we term the pod of Saxifraga steU 

 laris a capsule^ and that of S. tridactylites a diplotegia, what 

 name are we to apply to that of S. aizoides, which is only 

 half-superior ? 



Probably a wrong example is adduced on p. 148, for we 

 cannot believe that any species of Ranunculus has the rhaphe 

 averse from the placenta in the ripe fruit. By an oversight, 

 on the same page, the fruits of Lahiatm are spoken of as 

 seeds. 



As respects the systematic part, the chapters on the prin- 



