Miscellanies. 16^ 



will be observed that DeCandolle has disposed the Ericaceas nearly 

 in the manner first proposed in the Theorie ElSmeiitaire, consider- 

 ing the VaccinicEe, Monotropece, Pyrolacese, &c., as so many distinct 

 families ; a view, however, which will not probably be ultimately 

 adopted. Among the uncertain or little known Ericaceous plants, 

 DeCandolle has introduced the genus Picheringia of Nutiall (which 

 was founded upon Cyrilla paniculata of the same author, published in 

 the fifth volume of this Journal :) this however has been long since 

 ascertained to be a species of Ardisia, which belongs to a very differ- 

 ent order ; and Mr. Nuttall has accordingly recently dedicated to Dr. 

 Pickering a curious Leguminous plant from California. The genus 

 Galax, DeCandolle has appended to Pyrolaceae, (tribe Galaceae,) a 

 view which appears to be confirmed by an unpublished plant from the 

 mountains of North Carolina, which, in compliment to an assiduous 

 and well-known American botanist, Avill bear the name of Shortia 

 galacifoUa. 



The prior portion of the seventh volume (published in 1838) as 

 well as the whole of the fifth (1836) and sixth, (1837,) is exclusively 

 devoted to the immense family of the Compositce, (the class Syngene- 

 sia of Linnaeus,) which fills more than seventeen hundred closely 

 printed pages, the immediate preparation of which occupied the inde- 

 fatigable author for seven years ! We may take this family as a fair 

 example of the vast increase in the number of known species within 

 the last eighty years, or even a much later period, as a large propor- 

 tion of this increase is due to the discoveries of the last ten or fifteen 

 years. The whole number of Syngenesious plants described by Lin- 

 naeus in the first edition of the Species Plantarum, (published in 

 1753,) including the few Compositae referred to other classes, is five 

 hundred and fifty five, which is about one hundred and fifty less than 

 the now described species of the single genus Senecio. We have not 

 time nor space to enumerate the species of the order in succeeding 

 systematic works, so as to show the progressive increase. Suffice it 

 to say that the whole number known to Linnaeus and published during 

 his lifetime cannot exceed eight hundred species, while the number 

 described by DeCandolle is in round numbers about 8700, which are 

 disposed in eight hundred and ninety three genera. If to these we 

 were to add the species which have been since published, or are being 

 published in works now in progress, and also the very numerous un- 

 published species which exist in all the large collections, making at 

 the same time reasonable allowance for nominal species, the number 

 of Compositae at present known would scarcely fall short of ten 

 thousand, which considerably exceeds the whole number of both flow- 

 ering and flowerless plants described by Linnaeus or his contempora* 

 Vol. xssix, No. 1.— -April-June, 1840. 22 



