344 REVIEWS. 



REVIEWS. 



Enumeration des genres de plant es de laflore du Canada pr^cedie de» 

 tableaux analytiques des families, et destinee aux eUves qui suivenf 

 le cours de botanique deso'iptive donne a Vuniversite Laval. Par 

 I'abbe Ovide Brunei, professeur de Botanique. 

 We cordially welcome every attempt to encourage and assist the 

 study of Botany in this country, and we therefore received with much 

 interest the little work just issued by the learned professor at Laval 

 University. It is probable, however, that its usefulness will not ex- 

 tend much beyond the students in Professor Brunei's classes, for 

 whom it is immediately designed. To those not very familiar with 

 scientific names a list of genera in the order in which they are to be 

 treated of may prevent some embarrassment, and the analytical tables, 

 though not the best we have seen, will greatly assist the beginner. 

 Botanical classification is at present in a very unsettled state. The 

 natural groups which it is the custom in this science to call orders, 

 but which correspond with what in Zoology are termed families, are 

 pretty well determined, though further study may lead both to subdi- 

 vision and combination to a certain extent. There is also pretty 

 general agreement respecting the highest divisions of the vegetable 

 kingdom, which, though commonly called classes, bear more relation 

 to the Zoological sub-kingdoms or branches ; but the intermediate 

 divisions which are obviously required, and which, if really natural, 

 would at once enlarge the student's views and facilitate his labours, 

 must be regarded as altogether unsettled. Amongst the Monocoty- 

 liEDONEiE or Endogen^ Liudley's Bictyogence may make a good 

 class : Glumiferce perhaps another, whilst the remainder must for the 

 present be accounted a third which has been named Floridce. Advanc- 

 ing to the Dicotyledone^ or Exogen^, the highest vegetable sub- 

 kingdom, the difficulty becomes much greater. The Gymnospermce, 

 indeed, which have but slender claims to be made a division of equal 

 rank with the Monocotyledoneas and Dicotyledonese, will clearly form 

 one class in this great sub-kingdom, but beyond this we have as yet 

 no great divisions of Exogens which are not merely artificial, and even 

 so ill-defined as often to occasion great difficulty to the inexperienced 

 student. Without referring to those which are less known in this 

 country, and quite as liable to objection, we may mention the method 

 of DeCandolle, its modification by Dr. Gray, and Dr. Lindley's 



