186 
REVIEW. 
overcome. But it is hardly necessary to say, that in natural history many facts which have been 
originally discovered hy'minute and laborious research, are subsequently ascertained to be connected with 
other facts of a more obvious nature ; and of this Botany offers perhaps the most striking proof that can 
be adduced. One of the first questions to be determined by a student of Botany, who wishes to inform 
himself of the name, affinities, and uses of a plant, seems to be, whether it contains spiral vessels or not, 
because some of the great divisions of the vegetable kingdom are characterised by the presence or absence 
of those minute organs. It is true that careful observation, and multiplied microscopical analyses, have 
taught Botanists that certain plants have spiral vessels, and others have none ; but it is not true, that in 
practice so minute and difficult an inquiry needs to be instituted, because it has also been ascertained that 
plants which bear flowers have spiral vessels, and that such as have no flowers are usually destitute of 
spiral vessels, properly so called ; so that the inquiry of the student, instead of being directed in the first 
instance to an obscure but highly curious microscopical fact, is at once arrested by the two most obvious 
peculiarities of the vegetable kingdom. 
" Then, again, among flowering plants two great divisions have been formed, the names of which, 
Monocotyledons and Dicotyledons, are derived from the former having usually but one lobe to the seed, 
and the latter two, — a structure much more difficult to ascertain than the presence or absence of spiral 
vessels. But no Botanist would proceed to dissect the seeds of a plant for the purpose of determining 
to which of those divisions it belongs, except in some very special case. He knows from experience 
that the minute organisation of the seed corresponds with a peculiar structure of the stem, leaves, and 
flowers, the most highly developed, and most easily examined parts of vegetation ; a Botanist, therefore, 
prefers to examine the stem, the flower, or the leaf of a plant, in order to determine whether it is a 
Monocotyledon or a Dicotyledon, and rarely finds it necessary to anatomise the seed. 
" The presence or absence of albumen, the structure of the embryo, the position of the seeds or ovules^ 
the nature of the fruit, the modifications of the flower, are not to be brought forward as other difficult 
points peculiar to the study of the Natural System, because, whatever system is followed, the student 
must make himself acquainted with such facts, for the purpose of determining genera. The common 
Toad-flax cannot be discovered by its characters in any book of Botany, without the greater part of this 
kind of inquiry being gone through. 
" In the determination of genera, however, facility is entirely on the side of the Natural System. 
J ussieu has well remarked ' that whatever trouble is experienced in remembering, or applying the 
characters of Natural Orders, is more than compensated for by the facility of determining genera, the 
characters of which are simple in proportion as those of Orders are complicated. The reverse takes place 
in arbitrary arrangements, where the distinctions of classes and sections are extremely simple and easy to 
remember, while those of genera are in proportion numerous and complicated.' " 
His own announcement of the intention of the work is as follows : — 
" Its object is to give a concise view of the state of Systematical Botany at the present day, to show the 
relation or supposed relation of one group of plants to another, to explain their geographical distribution, 
and to point out the various uses to which the species are applied in different countries. The names of 
all known genera, with their synonymes, are given under each Natural Order, the numbers of the genera 
and species are in every case computed from what seems to be the best authority, and complete Indices 
of the multitudes of names embodied in the work are added, so as to enable a Botanist to know 
immediately under what Natural Order a given genus is stationed, or what the uses are to which any 
species has been applied. Finally, the work is copiously illustrated by wood and glyphographic cuts, and 
for the convenience of Students, an artificial analysis of the system is placed at the end." 
To his own elaborated plan of arrangement, the author has prefixed an analysis of the systems 
of Ray, Jussieu, De Candolle, and all who have ever organised anything approaching to a Natural 
System. By a comparison of these, in the chronological order of their promulgation, the student 
will be enabled to see what improvements have been effected, and by thus elevating his apprecia- 
tion of that now proposed, he will set about its examination with additional zest and pleasure. 
If we need say more than we have already done by way of recommendation, we will add that 
the entire work is got up with that laborious attention to accuracy for which the author is so 
conspicuous. It is beautifully printed, and the illustrations are chiefly of a useful character, such 
as will materially aid the inquirer in fixing on the minuter and more prominent distinctions between 
tribes, orders, and genera. Still, there are occasional portraits of entire plants, taken from our 
own Magazine, by which the prevailing habit in any particular tribe of plants is appropriately 
indicated. 
