32 
REVIEWS. 
the work. This is one of those carefully condensed summaries which 
matured experience alone could frame. As it has not been thought 
necessary to repeat either the diagnoses or names of the groups su¬ 
perior to Natural Orders in the body of the work, this synopsis of 
seven pages demands a brief notice. The Dicotyledonous Polypetals 
are divided into three * Series ’— Thalamiflorae , Disciflorae , and Caly- 
cijiorae; not into Thalamiflorae and Calyciflorae only, as in the 
£ Theorie Elementaire.’ The prominent introduction of a group of 
Disciflorae is a novel feature, and one the practical utility of which 
appears to us yet to be tried. At first sight it seems rather remark¬ 
able that a character of so great systematic importance should depend 
upon the development of the cellular thickening or expansion of the 
torus which we term disc; a development to which we are slow to 
assign organic independence, and which is found almost indifferently 
either between any of the floral verticils, or, in the opinion of some 
organogenists, exterior to them altogether; yet when we consider 
the high value always attributed to the insertion of the stamens, and 
to £ ovarium superum vel inferum ’—a value which experience has, we 
think, largely ratified ;—and when we reflect further that, after all, 
these characters are essentially based upon the amount of adhesion 
between a theoretical disc and the ovary, we cease to wonder that 
the prevalence of a free disc inside or outside the stamens should be 
seized and applied as it has been by Messrs. Bentham and Hooker. 
With them it has been a choice of difficulties which few indeed are 
in a position fully to appreciate, and still fewer competent to choose 
between. 
The three £ Series ’ are briefly characterized as follows : —• 
I. Thalamiflorae. Calyx ab ovario saepissime liber. Petala 
1-serialia v. saepe 2- oo -serialia. Stamina oo v. definita, toro 
saepius parvo v. elevato v. stipitifonni inserta. Ovarium saepissime 
superum. 
II. Disciflorae. Calyx ab ovario saepius liber. Petala 1-serialia. 
Stamina saepius definita, intra v. supra v. circa torum in discum 
saepius expansum inserta. Ovarium saepius superum v. disco im- 
mersum. 
III. Calyciflorae. Calycis tubus saepius ovarium fovens v. adna- 
tus. Petala 1-serialia, calycis tubo inserta. Stamina oo v. definita, 
calycis tubo v. disco calycis tubum vestienti saepissime inserta. 
Ovarium saepe calycis tubo inclusum v. inferum. 
The £ Series ’ are divided into £ Cohorts.’ Thalamiflorae into six, 
viz., Panales, Parietales, Polygalineae, Caryophyllineae, Guttiferales, 
Malvales ; Disciflorae into four,—Geraniales, Olacales, Celastrales, 
Sapindales. In the latter Series we observe that the insertion of the 
ovule and relative position of the raphe, whether ventral or dorsal, 
are made use of as affording diagnostic characters for the Cohorts. 
The Natural Orders which happen to be more or less exceptional are 
noted under the £ Dxcepta ’ of each Cohort, and this plan of indica¬ 
ting exceptional forms is further admirably carried out in the work 
