12.—1846.] 
THE GARDENERS’ CHRONICLE. 187 
Was a specimen of the rare Goliathus Polyphemus. 
One of these insects existed formerly in the Fabrician 
Collection, in the possession of the Society, but 
Was abstracted, and its place has never been supplied 
till now.—A collection of Fruits, consisting chiefly 
of various forms of Proteads, with specimens of fungi, 
and the egg probably of a species of shark, were 
Presented by J. S. Bowerbank, Esq.—A collection of 
dried plants, chiefly obtained by Mr. Hunt, was pre- 
Sented by the Botanical Society of London.—A paper 
wasread by Dr. Golding Bird, on the strueture of the 
Siliceous stomatie apparatus of Equisetum hyemale. On 
Submitting a portion of the stem of one of these plants 
to the action of nitric acid, and placing it under the field 
of a microscope, a beautiful siliceous structure is 
Tevealed. Situated in very regular rows are a num- 
her of tubercles of a siliceous structure, in each of 
which is a transverse fissure, and at the bottom of this 
fissure is situated a stomate, with its fissure at right 
angles with that of the tubercle. The stomates are 
also siliceous, and each limate portion exhibits on its 
inner edge a pectinated structure. Viewed from the 
Under side, the stomate alone was visible; in the 
limate bodies of which the stomate is composed, are 
frequently, but not constantly observed, three perfora- 
tions. The author thought this structure well-adapted 
to Supply the internal parts with the air necessary for 
the life of the plant. ‘The paper was illustrated by a 
diagram, and microscopic preparations of the structure. 
BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 
March 6.—E. Dovnuspay, Esq., V.P., in the chair. 
Donations to the library were announced from the 
American Philosophical Society, Mr. G. Rich, and Mr. 
+ Pamplin. Doctor G. M‘Nab presented some plants 
from Jamaica, The following’ specimens were ex- 
hibited :—1. Sisyrinchium (anceps ?).—Communiecated 
by the Rev, H. L. Jenner, by whom it had been re- 
ceived as an indigenous Irish plant, collected in a wood, 
Rear Woodford, county of Galway. he specimens 
Were past flowering, but the genus is certain, and the 
Species probably correct. If truly native, this will be 
another added to the short list of plants common to 
merica and the British Isles, but unknown in Europe, 
less as naturalised plants. 2. Ranunculus Lenor- 
mandi, Sehultz.—Communieated by Mr. James Back- 
house, from the head of Coniston Lake; also by Mr, 
Hewett Watson, from Esher Common, Surrey. This 
has been long known ; but has usually (and, perhaps, 
correctly) been considered a variety of R, hederaceus. 
The Esher specimens are larger and less like R. he- 
deraceus than are those of Coniston. It is the variety 
partitus? of the London “Catalogue of British 
Plants.” 3. Erica Mackayi, Hook.—Seven specimens, 
Selected from others communicated by Mr. Mackay. 
These were selected in order to show that Mackayi 
passes into tetralix by intermediate forms, which 
illustrate the gradual change of habit and character. 
- Glyceria fluitans, Br., and G. plicata, Fr.—Commu- 
nieated by Mr. Moore, from a field near Hampstead, to 
illustrate the differences between the (reputedly two) 
Species. 5. Saxifraga umbrosa, Linn,—A numerous 
Series, selected from others, communicated by Mr. 
ackay and Mr. Andrews, illustrating the gradual 
change in the character of the leaves, from the 
€renate form, found in Yorkshire and on the 
Pyrenees, to the very acutely serrate form named ser- 
Tatifolia. Of this latter there is a duplicato-serrate 
Sub-variety, which Mr. Andrews sends under the name 
of & Ogilby's Saxifrage.” 6. Gnanthes.—A selection 
from the specimens collected by the Rev. A. Bloxam 
and Mr. Lees in 1845. The specimens of Lachenalii 
Senf by Mr. Lees had the roots broken short, so that 
ae thickened or tuber-like portion appeared. The roots 
Mr. Bloxam’s plants of Lachenalii were whole, and 
Mostly showed avery decided thickening at one to three 
ES below the base of the stem. One of these had 
d fusiform roots, precisely of the same charac- 
aes the roots of Mr. Lees's examples of peuceda- 
a ia or Silaifolia, showing indisputably that the root 
one mona not distinguish the two species. Two of 
ees’s specimens of pimpinelloides (Linu.) had 
Most different roots, is both were S the pin: 
floweri, : 
E fully s Stage ; in one the knobs were numerous, and 
While E 3 
Sio the other the roots might have passed for 
E. The Society has now a very ful 
roots of Gnanth ree species. Read, * Remarks on the 
mouth, Norfolk, » ,Lathenalii from ditches near Yar- 
sented. ? by Mr. G. Fitt ; Specimens were pre- 
3iebíttos 
E E 3 Or the Structure, Classifica- 
Pa its, illustrated upon the Natural 
ystem.. By John Lindley, py p FR S. 8vo. 
. ., Bradbury and Evans, London. 
As it will probably be expected" ; 
Some account of this book, we 
a few extracts from its preface, 
tion of its contents. 
“ The work originated in a desire, on the art of the 
author, to make his countrymen an with the 
Progress of Systematic Botany abroad durin g the pre- 
vious Quarter of a century. When it first appeared 
the science was so little studied, that the very names of 
that we should give 
Shall do so by means of 
and by a short descrip- 
some of the best writers on the subject were unfamiliar 
to English ears. r own language there was 
nothing whatever; and the Natural System of arranging 
plants, although ionall ioned hing 
extremely interesting, was currently regarded as the 
fond. speculation of a few men with more enthusiasm 
than sound judgment ; and this, too, was the opinion 
expressed by persons who stood at the head of English 
Botany, in the estimation of many British naturalists.” — 
* The importange of the Natural System in a practical 
country like Great Britain was too manifest to leave 
any doubt in the mind of the author, that tlie good 
sense of his countrymen would lead to its universal re- 
ception when once placed within their reach, Nor has 
he been disappointed. Fifteen years have sufficed to 
render the once popular, but superficial and useless, 
system of Liunzeus a mere matter of history. Fuit 
Jium."— 
“The Natural System of Botany being founded on 
these prineiples, that all points of resemblance between 
the various parts, properties, and qualities of plants 
shall be taken into consideration; that thence an arrange- 
ment shall be deduced in which plants must be placed 
next each other which have the greatest degree of simi- 
larity in those respects; and that ly the quality 
Hookers, the Jussicus, Martius, Miers, and Richard, 
stand in the first rank.”— 
* The uses to which plants are applied has been re- 
examined with great care, and principally re-written. 
This part was originally intended as a mere sketch o! 
so vast and important a subject, and in truth it is little 
more even now. It is, however, materially enlarged, 
and the author hopes, better arranged. In preparing 
it, great numbers of works have been consulted, and 
most especially the special treatises of Dierbach, Fée, 
Geiger, Guibourt, Martius, Nees von Esenbeck, Pereira, 
Richard, and Royle, together with the capital conden- 
sation published by Endlicher in his * Enchiridion. "— 
“There is still another point in which the author has 
endeavoured to effect some improvement, and that is, 
the nomenclature. Since the days of Linnæus, who 
was the great reformer of this part of Natural History, 
a host of strange names, inl i 1uipedali. 
or barbarous, have found their way into botany, and, 
by the stern but almost indispensable laws of priority, 
are retained there. It is full time, indeed, that some 
stop should be put to this torrent of savage sounds, 
when we find such words as Calucechinus, Oresigenesa, 
i Kraschenninikovia, G horstia, An- 
trina 
2 
ne Michchonas M qe 1 
of an imperfectly-known plant may be judged of by that 
of another, which is well known, it must be obvious 
hat such a method possesses great superiority over 
artificial systems, like that of Linnzeus, in which there 
is no combination of ideas, but which are mere collec- 
tions of isolated facts, having no distinct relation to each 
other. The advantages of the Natural System, in ap- 
plying Botany to useful purposes, are immense, espe- 
cially to medical men, who depend so much upon the 
vegetable kingdom for their remedial agents. A know- 
ledge of the properties of one plant enables the practi- 
tioner to judge scientifically of the qualities of other 
plants naturally allied to it; and, therefore, the phy- 
sician acquainted with the Natural System of Botany 
may direct his inquiries, when on foreign stations, not 
empirically, but upon fixed principles, into the qualities 
of the medicinal plants which have been provided in 
every region for the alleviation of the maladies peculiar 
oit. He is thus enabled to read the hidden characters 
with which Nature has labelled all the hosts of species 
that spring from her teeming bosom. Every one of 
these bears inscribed upon it the uses to which it may 
be applied, the dangers to be apprehended from it, or 
the virtues with which it has been endowed. The lan- 
guage in which they are written is not, indeed, human ; 
it is in the living hieroglyphics of the Almighty, which the 
skill of man is permitted to interpret. The key to their 
meaning lies enveloped in the folds of the Natural Sys- 
tem, and is to be found in no other place."— 
“The plan of the work is to give a concise view of 
the state of Systematieal Botany at the present day, to 
show the relation or supposed relation of one group of 
plants to another, to explain their geographical distri- 
bution, and to point out the various uses to which the 
species are applied in different countries. The names 
of all known genera, with their synonyms, are given 
under each Natural Order, the numbers of the genera 
and species are in every case computed from what 
seems to be the best authority, and complete Indices o 
the multitude of names embodied in the work are 
added, so as to enable a Botanist to know immediately 
under what Natural Order a given genus is stationed, 
or what the uses are to which any species has been ap- 
plied. Finally, for the convenience of Students, an 
artificial analysis of the system is placed at the end." — 
“Tn offering to the publie a view of the present state of 
Systematieal Botany, the author has pursued the plan 
developed in the succeeding pages, of first taking cer- 
tain characters common to very extensive assemblages 
of plants, by means of which classes have been con- 
stituted ; and secondly, of breaking up those classes 
into minor groups called alliances, whose common cha- 
raeters are also more extensive than those of Natural 
Orders, and under which the Natural Orders are them- 
selves assembled. Very short characters have been 
proposed, under the name of Diagnoses, for both 
Alliances and Orders; these are intended to express 
the prevailing tendeney observable in each group, but 
do not inelude easual exceptions, for which the reader 
is referred to the descriptions immediately following the 
diagnoses. “The alliances are the most important feature 
in the arrangement; and it is to be hoped will be found 
much better limited than they formerly were. ‘The 
name allianee has been preserved in preference to that 
of class, family, eirele, cohort, &e., because it is not 
ptible of two interpretations, as is the case with 
all the others ; it is employed as an English equivalent 
for the Latin term nixus, which some have imagined 
was a misprint for nevus, but which was used in the 
sense of Cicero, and intended to express a tendency to 
assume some partieular form of strueture. 1f any one 
should inquire why no synonyms have been quoted to 
these alliances, concerning which so many botanists 
have lately occupied themselves, the author's answer i“, 
that they have hitherto been much too little agreed upon, 
except in a few very special eases, and that an exami- 
nation of their history would involve an inquiry which 
must extend back to the Anthemides of Cwsalpinus, 
and whieh belongs to the history of Systematical 
Botany rather than to its actual condition."— 
* In pointing out the affinities of plants, the opinions 
of the most judicious systematists have been consulted ; 
among these the names of Arnott, Auguste de St. Hi. 
laire, Bennett, Bentham, A. Brongniart, Brown, Cam- 
bessedes, Decaisne, the De Candolles, Endlicher, the 
gE 
= 
8 
matypus, and hundreds of others like them, thrust into 
the records of botany without even an apology. Ifsuch 
intolerable words are to be used, they should surely be 
reserved for plants as repulsive as themselves, and in- 
stead of libelling races so fair as flowers, or noble as 
trees, they ought to be confined to slimes, mildews, 
blights, and toadstools. The author has been anxious 
to do something towards alleviating this grievous evil, 
which at least need not be permitted to eat into the 
healthy form of botany clothed in the English language.” 
The book consists of 974 pages, very closely printed, 
and is filled with wood and glyphographie cuts, illus- 
trating the structure of the plants which are spoken of. 
These cuts are numbered as high as 526, but as some of 
the numbers occur more than once, and as each cut 
contains on an average at least four distinct objects, 
the real number of illustrations is somewhere between 
2000 and 3000. The Index alone consists of 106 pages, 
each page containing 3 columns, and refers to about 
28,000 genera or species. The number of natural 
orders is 303, arranged in 7 classes, comprising 56 alli- 
ances, and 20,806 genera. The number of economical 
or medicinal species mentioned is nearly 5000. 
In the present instance, as ia that of School Botany,” 
it has been a principal object with the author to have 
the work sold at the smallest possible price, so that it 
may be within the reach of those against whom illus- 
trated works of Natural History are in general sealed 
up. And in order still further to accommodate those 
who have very limited means, the publishers have 
undertaken to issue it in monthly Numbers, which will 
be sold at the same rate asif the entire work were 
purchased at once. 
CALENDAR OF OPERATIONS. 
(For the ensuing W eek.) 
ALTHOUGH atmospheric moisture to hothouses in 
general has been so much insisted on of late (the want 
of a due proportion of i$ having been the chief error in 
the old systems), yet tliere are bounds in this respect 
that cannot be exceeded with impunity. We are now 
likely to have the assistance of a good hygrometer, and 
the time is not far distant when moisture will be 
imparted to the atmosphere of hothouses with as much 
precision as heat. My principal object in naming this 
subject is to caution inexperienced persons from in- 
dulging in too great an amount of atmospheric moisture 
in their Vineries in the day time. I know a case in 
which an early Vinery has the bottom pipe lying in a 
cemented brick trough or trench, of 16 inches in width. 
The house has fruiting Pines beneath the Vines, and the 
ardener, in attempting to carry out the amount of 
moisture which the Pines would revel in through the 
day, lost in the last summer most of the main leaves of 
his Vines. The consequence is, that his Vines, although 
in an excellent border, have broken weakly and blind. 
Moist air is more sluggish than dry 5 and of course ina 
hot sunshine, ventilation cannot so speedily be carried 
out. The gardener above alluded to, now very wisely 
empties this trench by means of a plug every morning, as 
early as possible. — * r 
CONSERVATORIES, STOVE, &c. 
Conservatory —The climb i is stracture will 
now want attention at least once a week, whether 
round the roof or pillars, or on trellises in tubs or 
pots. Prune off superfluous shoots, stop or pinch the 
points of gross leaders, to induce a flowering habit in 
those which produce blossom from the axils of their 
leaves, and keep them neatly tied and trained. Large 
Acacias, or gross climbers, will now require abundance 
of water ; those growing beneath the floor level, or 
under stone covers, should, when watered, have a 
thorough soaking. Stove Plants and Orchids.—Attend 
to regular shifting, watering, and a free and healthy 
circulation of air early in the morning, to stove plants 
—air without draft. Continue to eut down, disroot, and 
repot those which have been flowering through the 
winter. These would be better removed to a. bottom- 
heat of 809 in some spare pit or frame, and shaded, 
treating them as young Pines until they break, when 
they may,if necessary, be returned to the stovefor awhile. 
Follow up the shifting, top-dressing, &e. of Orchids in 
general; syringe freely those on blocks or baskets. 
Let this be done early on lively and sunny morn- 
ings, giving extra air, with a little fire-heat, on 
