580 
THE POSITION OF ARMY VETERINARY SURGEONS. 
separated from those with such organs; and thus fungoid 
forms are divided from ferns and mosses. Again, as regards 
the flowering plants, those whose stems are formed concentri¬ 
cally with a central pith called Exogens, will be found to 
possess seeds divisible into two parts or Cotyledons, and hence 
equalling the Dieotyledoris of Jussieu, Decandolle, and others, 
of course easily separable from plants whose wood has not 
this regular concentric arrangement with a single Cotyledon, 
and hence a Monocotyledon. 
That there will be points in which the broad lines of de¬ 
marcation here mentioned will be difficult to make out is 
certain, and for the reason that, natural as they may be, yet 
Nature has no hard lines. It is, indeed, wnth botany, as long 
since described by Mr. Milne-Edwards in respect to zoology; 
he saj'S— 
When zoology is only studied in systematic works it is 
often supposed that each class, each family, and each genus 
])resent to us boundaries precisely defined, and that there can 
be no uncertainty as to the place to be assigned, in a natujL*al 
classification, to every animal the organization of which is 
sufficiently known. But when we study this science from 
nature herself, we are soon convinced of the contrary, and 
we sometimes see the transition from one plan of structure 
to an entirely different scheme of organization take place by 
degrees, so completely shaded one into the other, that i’t 
becomes very difficult to trace the line of demarcation between 
the groups thus connected.— Ann. Sc. Nat. 1840. 
THE POSITION OF ARMY VETERINARY 
SURGEONS. 
By Centaur.” 
Your editorial in the March number of the Veterinarian 
impresses me with the hope that you will ventilate the 
question of more speedy promotion among army veterinary 
surgeons. / 
Your pages, I know, are ever ready to assist in a good 
cause, and I feel convinced that it is only by agitation we can 
force the subject on the War-office authorities. 
I call on all army veterinary surgeons—royal and local—to 
espouse our joint cause in firm but moderate language. 
riieie are two ways to bring tliis about. First, by petition ; 
and secondly, by^ agitation through the army papers, not for¬ 
getting our own immediate medium, the Veterinarian. 
