Botany. 7? 



Synoptical Flora; and it would be very useful, especially to begin- 

 ners, who ought to have as little as possible to unlearn. If sci- 

 entific education is to be creditable as well as popular, it is 

 desirable that those who use botanical names should learn how to 

 pronounce them, at least so far as to place the principal accent on 

 the right syllable; — and this, indeed, is all that can be demanded. 



In accordance with a prevalent mode, the Gymnospermse are 

 placed after Monocotyledones, thus separating them widely from 

 other Dicotyledones. It is agreed that they should form a dis- 

 tinct class, and in the present collocation, Professor Coulter 

 follows the weight of authority. But we do not allow that this 

 collocation "better expresses relationships which have long been 

 recognized." The only right series is that in which the Gynino- 

 sperms intervene between the Dicotyledons and the Pteridophytes; 

 and the only way to preserve this series in a system is to begin 

 (or end) with the Monocotyledones. But so long as we begin 

 (or end) with Angiospermous Dicotyledons, and somewhere inter- 

 pose the Monocotyledons, it is evidently more natural to keep the 

 Gymnosperms next to the former, with which, through the Gne- 

 tacese, they are very closely connected, rather than to place them 

 next the highest Cryptogams, with which (granting their descent) 

 they are very distantly connected. 



It was a good thought of the author to relegate all the intro- 

 duced plants to foot-notes. Would it were practicable to do so 

 in the Flora of the whole country, so that we could represent the 

 vegetation of the land in its natural condition, before civilized 

 man wrought change and confusion in geographical botany. The 

 flora of the Great Plains and of the Rocky Mountains is, up to 

 the present time, so little disturbed that the course here followed 

 secures this advantage, and has no serious practical inconven- 

 iences. A. G. 



2. Sir Joseph Hooker on the last day of November retired 

 from the directorship of the Royal Gardens at Kew, which he 

 has held for twenty years, in continuation of the ten previous 

 years in which he was Assistant Director under his father, Sir 

 William Hooker. This is not a case of superannuation ; for Sir 

 Joseph is still a few years within the three score and ten, with 

 mental vigor unbroken and the corporeal little diminished ; but 

 he finds it impossible to make satisfactory progress with the 

 botanical works in hand while under the pressure of a load of 

 official cares. He has fully borne his part of administrative 

 duties, for which indeed he has remarkable aptitude; and working 

 botanists — especially those of the tried old school and of needful 

 experience — are rare and much to be treasured. One who knew 

 Kew before Sir William Hooker took it in hand in 1839, and who 

 has known it under his successor, and therefore through its whole 

 development into the unexampled scientific and practical estab- 

 lishment it has been made under their hands, finds it difficult to 

 conceive of Kew without a Hooker at its head. But we do 

 not anticipate any falling off under the new Director, Mr. This- 



