* "= r. ‘ 
a Botanica Wettings Rialinceiiti.- 239 
this business of establishing disiiitia and species will be end- - 
; for he insists, in his later works particularly, that both new 
Boles and new genera are continually produced by the deviation 
of existing forms, which at length giverise ‘to new species, if the 
foliage only is changed, and new genera when the floral organs are 
affected. « He assumes thirty to one hundred years as the average 
time required for the production of a new species, and five hun- 
dred to one thousand years for a new genus; and on a preceding 
page he remarks,* that ow varieties and species were often met 
with by me at long intervals,-in wild places well explored before, 
grown from seeds of akin species.” ‘It is even possible,” he 
continues, ‘to ascertain the relative ages and aflinities of actual 
Species and genera. .... As a general rule, the real genera 
of single or few species, are the newest in order of time, and the 
most prolific, the eldest in the series.”’+ 
It is therefore of little consequence, that half his genera and 
species do not really exist at present, since they may perchance 
Make their appearance a century hence.{ Our notice of these 
extraordinary works must be very brief. The first and most 
amusing part of the Flora Telluriana, is chiefly occupied with 
the author’s views of natural classification, upon which we have 
already made some remarks. This is followed by “The fifty 
tules of generic nomenclature, by Linneus and Rafinesque !”” 
In the second, the business of making genera is begun in earnest, 
and continued through the work. Thus Allium is divided into 
fifteen genera; Solidago, into seven, with about twice as many 
sub-genera; Saxifraga, into twelve genera, which are placed in 
three natural orders, and two different classes ; Polygonum into 
twenty-three ; G'entiana, (as left by Gsieobach ,) into fourteen ; 
Linum, into thirty-four; Hypericum into eleven ; and Salvia, into 
fourteen genera absolutely, and fourteen more pentibedd as doubtful 
or perhaps sub-genera. ‘“ As I have not yet heard of a genus dedi- 
- et. p. 12.—Vid. also Vew Flora, &c. 6. d, Op. cit, 14. 
+“ Thus it is needless to dispute and hiftor Aaa new Genera, and vari- 
eties, Every variety is a deviation which becomes a'speeiesas soon as it is perma- 2 
nent by a ae Devi ati ions in essential organs may thus migra becom 
ai 
Variety,” Rafinesque, in Atlantic Journal, p. 164. “ All our actual species of 
Cinis i ge Plums, Apples, Currants, Asters, Azaleas, Heaths, &c., have 
us been fi ormed. po it is so probably with every genuine — of many spe- 
cies.” Herbar. Rafin, 
