174 Miscellaniesn 



work on botany. Had a mere introduction to the elements of thS 

 science alone been needed, the desideratum might easily have been 

 supplied. "But I soon found," says Mr. Harvey, "on cross-ques- 

 tioning, that something very different was required. One lady told 

 nie that she knew already what ' calyx, corolla, stamens, and pistils, 

 and all that' meant ; and another had penetrated the mystery of Mo- 

 nandria, Diandria, &c., and did not want to be told that over again 

 what they desired, was a book in which they could discover the names 

 of every plant that struck their fancy in rambling through the fields 

 in short, a Flora Capensis. Here I found myself completely at fault 

 for there seemed little use in recommending the Flora of Thunberg. 

 or the more ancient writings of Burmann ; for even could they be 

 procured, which would not be without much difficulty, they would 

 have proved perfectly useless to ray lady friends, who, not being 

 blue-stockings, could have derived little instruction from the crabbed 

 Latin in which they are written." Mr. Harvey then conceived the 

 idea of writing a Flora Capensis ; but it at once occurring, that such 

 a work must consume a long series of years in preparation, he deci- 

 ded upon rendering that more prompt, though less complete assistance, 

 which a work like the present is calculated to afibrd. The Genera 

 of South African plants, is the result of this determination ; for which 

 the author deserves the thanks, not only of the lady friends, whose 

 benefit he had chiefly in view, but of all the cultivators of botanical 

 science. Although much more time would be required for its prepa- 

 ration, the work would have been more valuable had Mr. Harvey 

 placed still less dependence on preceding authors, and drawn his 

 characters in every practicable instance, from the plants themselves ; 

 but only those who are accustomed, to prepare their works in this 

 manner, are aware of the vast amount of labor it involves. The gen- 

 eral plan of the work, as the author informs us, is taken from Beck's 

 Botany of the Northern and Middle States of North America, and 

 Nuttall's Genera of North American Plants ; in the arrangement and 

 characters of the orders. Dr. Arnott has chiefly been followed. The 

 number of genera described is one thousand and eighty-six, distributed 

 under one hundred and thirty-five orders. Many South African gene- 

 ra have been published in still more recent general works or particu- 

 lar memoirs, or in those which had not reached the Cape in time to 

 be employed by Mr. Harvey, so that the number of Cape genera may- 

 be safely estimated at one thousand two hundred. 



6. Presl, Tentamen PteridMgrapMcd, seu Genera Filicacearum 

 prcesertim juxta venarum decursuni et distributioneni exposita. 

 {Prague, 1836, pp. 390, Svo., with 12 quarto lithographic plates.) — 



