848 Recent Progress and present State of Systematic Botany. 
short phrases, an invaluable qualification for clearness of me- 
thodical exposition. It has long been the recognized diplomatic 
language, and the first foreign one taught in most 
schools; and although within my own recollection national ani- 
mosities may have from time to time thrown it into disfavour 
in Germany and Eastern Europe, yet it always appears to re- 
cover its prestige there in general society. At the meetings of 
the botanists of various nations congregated at Florence last May, 
it was the general medium of intercourse, although the French- 
men present were in a very small minority. And in every branc 
of science or literature to which I have paid more or less atten- 
spread out of Kurope generally, and to a certain extent among 
uropean naturalists and other educated classes, especially in 
“The German isa more difficult language, much more difficult, 
indeed, for the Latin nations of southern and western Europ 
than for ourselves. Its construction is involved, its extraordl- 
nary copiousness occasions a strain upon the memory ; but it 
affords great facilities for giving expression to minutely dis- 
