156 Scientific Intelligence, 
Should ae or — groups be incorporated with the 
orders they most resemble, or be merely appended as “ genera 
affinia,” and the like ? The epics was inevitable in the earlier 
days of the natural schist ; but increasing knowledge, as well as 
considerations of symmetry and convenience, more and more fixes 
the place of these foatinng groups; so that their general incor- 
poration into the orders by Bentham and Hooker in the Genera 
Plantarum of our day is in the natural course of things. But 
oe have to remember that many of them are still riddles. 
ing numbers and definiteness, has rendered them superfluous. 
What was once stated in the developed description . np oth in 
one formula, and a vast deal more, is now parceled mong t 
dindind), tribal, generic, sub-generic or sectional, subsection aan 
woh characters, each of which deals primarily, if not wholly, 
erentice i 
pes dozen on »); re points ont. 6 some of their merit or * defects 
e 
