2^4 Professor Dewey on Caricography. 



the eye, might in process of time, (to which we are ftot 

 authorized to set any Umits,) form a complete greenstone, 

 the lava imitating the hornblende and depositions in the 

 pores, the feldspar, which would account for the frequent 

 presence of greenstone trap as it is called, in the newest 

 floetz trap of Werner ; this rock I should be disposed to 

 call ancient lava. 



Some of oar young geologists fascinated perhaps by the 

 brilliant wake of some Europeans, appear willing to ex- 

 plode the received artificial divisions : though no advocate 

 for the infallibility of stratification, formations &c. &c. &;c., 

 yet it is probable, that some such arrangement is neces- 

 sary, to facilitate the acquisition of the science, like the 

 shelves of a library, and perhaps it is equally convenient to 

 work with the old, until practice and observation shall 

 supply us with a newer and better. 



BOTANY. 



Art. IX. — Caricography ; by Professor C Dewey, 



Williams College. 



The genus, Carex, has generally been considered one of 

 the most difficult among the phaenogamous plants. The 

 species, known under the common name of Sedge-grass, 

 offer few attractions to any except the professed botanist. 

 Interesting as they are to him, there is no small (difficulty 

 in ascertaining the species with certainty. Hence it is that 

 so many have written upon this genus, and that syno- 

 nymes have been so multiplied. In the Inledning til Co- 

 ricographien of G. Wahlembeig, 142 species are described j 

 in Rees' Cyclopoedia, art. Carex, 172 species; and in the 

 elaborate work of C. Schkuhr, about 220 species, and of 

 most of them very accurate figures are given. Of this ge- 

 nus in our country 64 species are described in Pursh's 

 Flora ; in the Descriptio Uberior Graminum of Dr. Muh- 

 lenberg, 59 species ; in his genera, 1st edition, Nuttall 

 enumerates 68 species, among which are three species de- 

 scribed as new ; in the Flora of Michaux, only 21 species 

 are given, many of which have new names. Schknhr 

 quotes irom various authors about 400 names of the 220 

 species in bis work. 



