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towards accoraplishiug its object, it will confer a great boon on tbe 

 lovers of botanical science. Nay, even if its principles should prove 

 unsound or insufficient, and its results should not satisfy the mind, it 

 is still true that the laborious endeavour to promote knowledge de- 

 serves grateful acceptance, and that many years cannot have been 

 devoted to such inquiries by an intelligent and patient investigator, 

 so situated as to have access to many rare specimens, without im- 

 portant facts being brought to light, and hints afforded which will 

 assist others in the pursuit of the same object. It must be admitted 

 that the proper limits and true relations of the families of plants are 

 not yet understood ; and, if there are real relations at all in nature, 

 which we for our part cannot doubt, their discovery must be an 

 object of the highest interest and importance. We have no sym- 

 pathy with those who make light of system in Natural Science. It 

 is justly remarked by the present distinguished President of the Lin- 

 nsean Society, in his annual address, in reference to the sort of con- 

 tempt with which some seem now to regfyd system in Zoology and 

 Botany : " This is surely a mistake. "Without a good system, clearly 

 identifying the subjects of observation, no biological inquiries can 

 have any practical advantage ; and, in all our reviews of the progress 

 of our science, we ought equally to appreciate the labours of the 

 systematist, the physiologist, and the biologist, provided that each in 

 his own department has duly called in aid the results obtained in the 

 others." We should be disposed even to go beyond the learned 

 President, not valuing a good system only or chiefly for its enabling 

 us clearly to identify the subjects of observation, but accounting the 

 relations which it brings to our knowledge as among the most valu- 

 able results of our studies ; and believing that, as nature can only be 

 usefully examined through the medium of a system, the best system 

 will give us the truest and most practically valuable acquaintance 

 with its wonders and beauties. 



Mr. Clarke, in the work before us, deserves the praise of endea- 

 vouring to improve system by means of biological knowledge, and 

 that not only what he could collect from others, but what he obtained 

 by patient and varied observation. 



The vegetable kingdom is so beautiful, and, for many reasons, so 

 interesting to man, that many persons desire to acquire some know- 

 ledge of it. There is no general insensibility to the value of the 

 trees of the forest, the grain, fruits, and vegetables of the field and 



