354 Prodromus Systematis Nat. Regni Vegetabilis, Sfc. 



only of the 118 orders which are contained in the seven 

 volumes, did he receive any assistance, and that principally 

 from one or two of his favourite pupils. To the elaboration 

 of one natural order alone — the Compositce — six entire years 

 were devoted, and with it two volumes and a half of the 

 work are occupied. Such numbers of new species belong- 

 ing to this interesting tribe have of late years accumulated 

 in the Herbaria of European Botanists, that in these two 

 volumes and a half, M. De Candolle has described about 

 eight thousand, being a greater number than Linnaeus knew 

 of plants altogether from all parts of the world. 



To those who have made botany a study, it is useless to 

 say how well M. De Candolle was qualified for the task he 

 imposed upon himself, from his intimate knowledge of 

 vegetable anatomy and physiology, the true basis of sys- 

 tematic botany, — the clearness of his perception, and the 

 possession of an enlightened and philosophic mind, the 

 workings of which are obvious in every page of his numer- 

 ous writings, whether scientific or otherwise. To those who 

 are beginning their practical botanical studies, and who wish 

 to gain a knowledge of the many beautiful and strangely 

 organized vegetable beings which people the earth's surface 

 from the poles to the equator, and even the sea itself, this 

 work, even though incomplete, is quite indispensable, as in 

 no other is there a like number of plants described. 



To many of the orders, particularly those in the earlier 

 volumes, very large additions of species have since been 

 added in various periodical and other publications. These 

 have lately been accumulated in a work entitled " Reperto- 

 rium Botanices Systematicse," by G. G. Walpers, the first 

 volume of which was published at Liepsic in 1842; and 

 together with another which appeared in the following year, 

 may be considered as a supplement to the seven volumes of 

 the u Prodromus" published by the elder De Candolle. The 

 publication of this compilation was, indeed, a great boon 



