148 Remarks on the Flora Scotica 0 / Dr Hooker. 
half as many divisions as species, and each division dignified 
with a name in capitals and a long character in Italics, as if it 
really constituted a natural order, A method of this kind may 
do well, enough in a Monograph, but in a Flora regularity and 
consistency should be preserved : and whatever merit Mr Woods 
and Mr Lindley may have for their prolix descriptions of Roses, 
Dr Hooker can have little for adopting their method, when it 
stares the other genera of his arrangement out of countenance, 
by its disproportioned figure. 
The construction of the Generic Characters is, in the next 
place, to be considered. The necessity of certainty, conciseness, 
and perspicuity, in this department, must be too obvious to all 
to require elucidation. And in reference to those points, the 
generic tables of the Flora Scotica merit in general the greatest 
praise. There are, however, exceptions. The essential charac- 
ter, taken in the strictest sense, made up not so much with a 
reference to artificial system or to synoptic conveniency, as to 
distinctive natural characterization, is certainly the best when 
attainable. But cases exist where it cannot be obtained in this 
purity, and where recourse must be had to a, more prolix, but 
perhaps equally certain method. Allusion is here made to the 
practice, in extensive natural orders which happen to coincide 
with the artificial arrangement, of selecting certain points of 
contrast. In Didynamia, for example, the calyx and upper lip 
of the corolla; in the Grasses, the calyx, corolla, and seed, are 
taken for points of contrast. Now, in such a case, would it not 
be better to preserve a certain regularity without deviating from 
it, unless in the case of a single natural character taken from a 
very remarkable peculiarity in form, and to construct those part- 
ly factitious characters with an uniformity that might lead the 
student at the first glance to detect the genus of his plant.? 
The synoptical Generic Table of the Grasses displays this want 
of uniformity, which ought in every case to be avoided, and 
which ih this particular one is a source of confusion. Objection 
must also be made to the manner in which the seed or fruit is 
used in the Grasses, Jn some it is not mentioned at all, in others 
it is mentioned where it can be of little use. In truth, however, 
the characters taken from the seed are of little importance, there 
being nothing in the circumstance of its being fixed or free, to 
