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ON THE MYRTLE TRIBE OF PLANTS. 
If we except the rose, that universal favourite, the theme of the poet, and the 
pride of every garden, we are not aware of any plant which is accompanied with 
more pleasurable associations than the myrtle. It is one of the loveliest of evergreens ; 
elegant in its growth, graceful in its figure ; its leaves are not only beautiful, but 
they abound with a fragrant essential oil of peculiar quality ; and its flowers^ of 
dazzling white, pencilled with light airy stamens, each supporting a beautiful anther, 
are absolutely " redolent of sweets." 
This charming evergreen is so retentive of its brilliant foliage, that, to borrow 
the expression of Dr. Lindley, it seems as if it " were intended to make us forget 
that winter has power over vegetation," It is not our intention, however, to make 
the beauties of this species the chief subject of the present article ; we select it as 
the type of an order from which we hope to point out a few of the characteristics of 
what is now, par excellence, designated — the natural system of botany. 
We do this with the greater pleasure, because the members of the tribe are generally 
plants of great elegance, and moreover possess a peculiarity of structure which may 
very happily be adduced to explain the construction of the new system, and to 
point out in what way it differs from the artificial classification of the great Linnteus. 
The study of botany is enchanting as it is useful ; it is a pity, therefore, that 
its pursuit should be hampered by difficulties ; but so it is with all that is human, 
and we must submit. To those, therefore, who have been educated in the Linnsean 
system, we say " Go on, abandon it not, you have proved by experience the 
facilities it affords, the light it communicates; but be not prejudiced against that 
classification which embraces and teaches the knowledge of the physiological struc- 
ture of vegetable organisation." 
To young students, whose opinions remain unformed, we recommend the im- 
partial investigation of the elements of both systems. In the four numbers on 
botany, already published by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, 
and in Dr. Lindley's Ladies " Botany (Ridgway), the reader may obtain a sufficient 
insight of the leading principles of the natural system, which, in point of fact, may 
be considered the Science of Physiological Botany. If the student be inclined to 
investigate deeply, we recommend him to make himself acquainted with the prin- 
ciples of this science ; but caution him, at the same time, that difficulties and 
perplexities will attend his progress ; if, on the other hand, he wish merely to dis- 
criminate genera, to acquire the art of classing plants, and of assigning them a " local 
habitation and a name," we refer him to the classification of Linnaeus. Therein is 
light, precision, and arrangement approaching to perfection. Heretofore the natural 
system has been a mass of confusion ; and even now, improved as it has been by the 
zeal of a Lindley, it is unsettled, unfinished, and subject to perpetual revisals, addi- 
tions, and alterations. 
But not to dwell on the merits and deficiences of that, to which we cordially 
VOL. Ill NO. xxx. s 
