NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 549 
prehensiveness which distinguishes him, swept away several of the 
trifling divisions which have been erected between close kindred. 
Some ten orders have been merged in others, and more than a score 
of genera have been similarly dropped out. We can now call the lit- 
tle Houstonia by its old familiar name again, and forget the flavor of 
Oldenlandia in our mouths. 10se who have measured the angles of 
“ty eo ee to see what degree or proximity might entitle 
e bearer to this or that name, will find that Gymnadenia and Platan- 
vobs are no more; gue that they resurrect in Habenaria. Whether 
an anther may turn its face or back to you will not now win for it an 
ordinal title of Melanthacew, for it belongs to ‘the me number of 
Liliacee. And no one will be longer vexed with the protean forms of 
Oak-leaves, which have swayed him between black and scarlet, for 
Quercus tinctoria is now only a variety of Q. coccinea. Alsine, Mehr- 
ingia and Honkenya are now Arenaria; Oxalidacee, ‘athoatianah 
and Limnanthacee are now all Geraniacee ; Grossulacee and Par 
Siacee are now Sazifragracee. As an offset to this absorption of 
names, Dr. Robbins has increased the twelve species of Potamog Aa 
of the last edition to twenty-three in this, with varieties enough t 
delight a Darwini 
Dr. Gray has te the Mosses, Lichens, Fungi, and Algae, and 
very properly, for they are specialties in botanical science. We hope 
that some day the long hoped for supplementary volume may appear, 
in which all these orders shall be treated with equal thoroughness and 
accuracy, as the Mosses have been by Sullivant. Tuckerman and 
Curtis have all the material for their respective orders 
he plates of the Sedges are new to this volume, oa have all the 
finish and nicety of Sprague’s drawings. The young botanists of this 
country are favored in having for the writer of their manual one of 
the great masters of their science. When our hand-books are written 
_ With the same learning and breadth of treatment which are given to 
the most abstruse and recondite works of science, there is certainly 
‘Unusual incentive and unwonted means for effort and advancement at 
our disposal. — 
NATURAL HISTORY. MISCELLANY. 
ZOOLOGY. 
Common OBJECTS oF THE Country.—From our extensive piazza, 
the number and variety of birds that we daily behold are to me so 
