152 Scientific Intelligence. 



What we most complain of, is the lack of ordinary attention to the 

 structure of sentences, which renders the perusal of the earlier portion of 

 the book a positive discomfort, and "we fear, may sometimes prevent the 

 tyro from apprehending the author's meaning, Nor will the use of the 

 verb **to assist" in the French sense, help the mere EngHsh student much 

 in his endeavors to bring the sprawling members of a heterogeneous sen- 

 tence into intelh'gible order. Nor will he readily understand how in the 

 high groups of Cycads, there can be ''^^foreshadowing of structures to be 

 met with in a different and inferior series." (p. 54). 



The preliminary observations and the chapter on Cryptogams in gen- 

 eral deal with a high order of topics, some of them perhaps of too special 

 a character for the beginner, unless he be supposed to be already an adept 

 in Ph^enogamous botany ; such questions as the difference between affinity 

 and analogy, and between analogy and homology in organs ; the rank of 

 Coniferai in the natural system ; the limitation of the groups which we 

 eall classes, &c., as to whether they arc absolute or blended in nature, &c., 

 being incidentally but ably discussed, some of them in considerable 

 detail. Mr. Berkeley evidently doubts if there be any clear demarcation 

 between the animal and vegetable kingdoms, — at which we do not won- 

 der: — while he is unable anywhere '^ to trace any close connection be- 

 tween Pha^nogams and Cryptogams," and is inclined to think Endogens 

 and Exogens equally distinct, — which we are hardly disposed to object 

 to ; — but the two propositions together make a singular paradox. After 

 all, how are differences of this sort to be measured and compared in the 

 organic w^orld ? As to Coniferce and other Gymnosperras, while we 

 willingly ftllow that there is no affinity, and even perhaps no close anal- 

 ogy, between them and the higher Cryptogams, and regard them as 

 genuine Dicoty!edone«-Exogen3e, we are not ready to subscribe to the 

 doctrine that the extreme simplification of their flowers and the direct 

 impregnation of their naked ovules are not indications of low rank in 

 their class. But this is not the place to discuss this vexed question. 



If it is really " the best opinion that Podostemaceoe are reduced Lentibu- 

 lari<^^^'^ then ' bad is the best,' surely. Not only is the embryo of Nyni- 

 phcea " when properly understood, as distinctly dicotyledonous as in any 

 other plant," but we do not see how it can possibly be understood in any 

 other way. It is not clear to us that "no affinity is more sure than that 

 between Cactus and Eibes." "The degree of volition, if such it may be 

 called [in spermatozoids and zoospores] is extremely low, and may be 

 unattended with any consciousness." (p. 85.) May be^ indeed ! Is con- 

 sciousness a universal attribute even of animal life ? Does the author sup- 

 pose that the lowest animals, even that any animal destitute of a distinct 

 brain, leads a conscious existence ? 



We have touched upon some of these incidental points as they at- 

 tracted our notice, and have no space left in which to speak of the main 

 body and general merits of the work. Distributing the Cryptoganious 

 orders into Thallogens and Acroyens^ and the former into two alliances, 

 Algales and Mycetales^ the latter including the Lichenes as w^ell as the 

 Fungi, the author devotes 150 pages to the general structure and syste- 

 matic arrangement of the Algales^ and 185 to the Fxcngales, Upon this, 

 tiie principal staple and the most important part of the work, it would be 



J -m. 



