NOTICES OF BOTANICAL PUBLICATIONS. 
113 
unless a majority of black balls appear against him. Any member so 
admitted shall pay two shillings and sixpence admission money. 
XII. That this Society shall never be dissolved so long as three 
members remain. Treasurer, Mr. Clews. 
Secretary, Mr. Stapleton. 
Librarian, Mr. James. 
Admitted a member 18 
Secretary. 
NOTICES OF BOTANICAL PUBLICATIONS. 
Edwards’s Botanical Register, continued by Dr. Lindley. 
The February number contains: — 
1. (Enotherahumifusa. Pencilled Evening Primrose. * f A pretty 
little hardy annual, creeping close to the ground, forming a plant a 
foot in diameter, and shedding its seeds very freely.” It is said to be 
a native of America, and first described by Nuttal. It is the 
(E. concinna of Don, and the Boisduvalia concinna of Spach in 
Ann, des Sci. 
It appears that this last-named author has been lately employed in 
revising the genus (Enothera by cutting it up into four, five, or more 
new genera, quite unnecessarily; and for which he has received a most 
severe lecturing from Dr. Lindley. “ Upon what grounds,” says the 
Doctor, ff it will be asked, is all this change effected ? Why, upon this: 
Mr. Spach has made the prodigious discovery that in some species of 
(Enothera the seeds have a thicker skin than in others, that their skin 
is even occasionally pitted: he has further ascertained that the seed 
vessel is not always of the same shape, but that it is narrow in some and 
broad in others, tough in some and tender in others, now broadest at one 
end, now at the other; and he has even found out that some (Enotheras 
have eight ribs, others twelve, and others only four in their capsules! ” 
Dr. L. continues, “ Can anything be well imagined more perfectly 
absurd, or more pregnant with mischief than such doings as this ? If 
there be any meaning in the word genus, and if it has any intelligible 
application, it must be the representation of some special simple type 
of organisation which differs from all other types: just as an order is 
the representation of some more compound type of organisation. 
If the example of writers like Mr. Spach were to be followed, syste¬ 
matic botany would be resolved into its original elements : books would 
consist of mere masses of species; all power of analysis would be at an 
end, and the great objects of classification would be annihilated. 
VOL. V.— NO. LVII. Q 
