VI 
TAXODINEE AND ARAUCARINEE 
(OF THE NATURAL ORDER CONIFER, oF THE 
FAMILY PINACE, or THE TRIBE TAXODINE) 
Any man that walks the mead, 
In bud or blade or bloom may find 
A meaning suited to his mind, 
TENNYSON, 
THis is a small group of coniferous trees of very 
different appearances, of little outward and visible 
resemblance often one to another, for the most part 
of seemingly rather far-fetched affinity, and they 
rejoice in the one tribal name of Taxodinez. 
There must have been, we think, something just 
a little inconsiderate in the nature, and something 
just a little stubborn in the attitude, of the advisory 
committee of our botanical experts, in their methods 
of prescribing lasting names of the tribes, orders, and 
species of that day, when they singled out for this 
omne gatherum group a name which vibrates in such 
a propinquity of sound to that of the Taxacean 
family. 
When we reflect that, on account of a certain ap- 
proximation of appearance, this name must have 
been given to them, yet at the same time, on account 
of a certain ascertained non-approximation of some 
botanical characteristics, they were denied admittance 
to the honourable company of the Taxacean family, 
we plead guilty to a sense of mystification. We 
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