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THE TENDENCIES OF SYSTEMATIC BOTANY. 
By M. C. COOKE, M.A. 
I N the commercial world it is considered a laudable proceeding* 
on the part of any honest trader to pause once or twice in 
the year and review his position, take account of his stock, con- 
sider the transactions of the immediate past, and determine on 
future operations. The reckless adventurer may not deem any 
such process essential, but thereby he neither merits the confi- 
dence or esteem of those who are worthy to bestow it. So also 
is it incumbent on those who pursue science to pause, if not so 
frequently, at least occasionally, and reflect on the past, con- 
template the present, and forecast the future, in so far as his 
own particular study is concerned. Whether he shall always 
keep silence as to his conclusions, or communicate them as a 
warning or encouragement to others, may be matter of opinion. 
There may be times when to be silent is little short of treachery, 
especially when there is ever so small a hope that by indicating 
rocks ahead the vessel may be directed into a safer channel. 
The number of those who take an interest in the tendencies 
of any one branch of biological science is comparatively small, 
and probably those who interest themselves in botanical subjects 
are by no means so numerous as those interested in entomo- 
logical or other sections of zoology. Still the few are entitled 
to regard, and to them the estimate which one of their number 
may feel it imperative to make of the tendencies exhibited by 
the systematises of the day may not be without interest or im- 
portance. 
It may be premised that although the writer will draw his 
conclusions, and educe illustrations from his own special branch 
of the science, he does so in full confidence that the tendencies 
which lie purposes to indicate are not peculiar to that branch, 
but are more or less present in all. The experiences of others 
having been canvassed and compared with his own, he believes 
that there are good grounds for the conclusion that not only 
amongst the lower, but also amongst the higher orders of plants, 
the same practices prevail, and the same tendencies are making 
