1310.] Monthly Botanical Report. es 
America; accordingly, Mr. Brown has not only been under the necessity of creating a great 
number of new genera, but even of considerably increasing the number of natural orders. In 
both respects some botanists will be ready to think, that he has b-en more than sufficiently 
liberal ; and, indeed, some of his genera appear to us, from the superficial view we are ena- 
bled to-take, to depend upon characters of hardly sufficient importance to keep them distinct 5 
but a more intimate acquaintance with the plants which have come under his novice may in- 
duce us to think differently ; and, at all events, our opinion can weigh but little when com- 
pared with the intimate knowledge of the structure internal, as well as external, of the plants 
he has desoribed, which this author has proved himself to possess. : 
Mr. Brown, having to frame so many new genera, felt himself under the almost absolute 
necessity of proceeding upon a natural method, in order to avoid falling into great ezrors 5 
and, undoubtedly, there is no other way of founding genera upon sound principles, but by. 
studying their natural affinities. He has accordingly followed the method of Jussieu, whose 
orders are, for the most part, truly natural; but, of the classes of this admirable author, Mr. 
Brown has formed a d-ferent estimate, conceiving them to be often artificial, and not unfre- 
quently founded upon ambiguous principles. He has not however been solicitous about the 
series in which the orders are arranged, Nature herself;as he says, hardly using a regular 
Series, but has connected organic bodies rather in the manner of a net thanachain. In our 
opinion, the simile of Linnzus is a more happy one, when he compares the natural orders of 
vegetables to a map, where the land is separated by the waters into masses of very dispropor=- 
tionate bulk; and these more*or less connected, or entirely separate. 
The author promises to give the diagnoses of his orders, which at present are to be gathered 
from the full descriptions prefixed to each, and also contracted generic characters arranged after 
the Linnzan system, with the next volume, but which are, together with the acotyledenes, ae 
precede the present one. ‘This circumstance explains the reason of the volume beginning 4; 
page 145, appearing, at first sight, as if nine sheets of letter-press had been omitted or mj,_ 
placed. We shall be very glad to receive these additions, for in the mean time none but guch 
as have made a considerable progress in the study of natural aifinities, can easily use this 
work for the purpose of discovering any plant they may happen to possess. ‘So difficult indeed 
is the acquisition of a knowledge of the natural families of plants, or so imperfect is that 
knowledge when intended to comprehend the whole vegetable world, although so easy and 
familiar in its partial application to certain well, known orders, that the most experienced, 
and those who have paid the most attention to the subject extremely often form a different 
“judgment upon the family to which a plant ought to-be referred. Kor this reason, the uti-e 
lity of this work, wili be much increased by the addition of an artificial arrangement, by which 
every botanist can with ease find any plant contained init, that he may wish to seek. By 
the bye, a similar arrangement was promised by Jussieu, but has not, we believe, been yet 
published. 
We should be giving a very false idea of this Flora of New Holland, were we to leave it 
to be understood; that in following Jussieu, Mr. Brown has been contented with copying the 
characters of the orders, or of such genera as are to be found there, from his work. On the 
contrary, every thing here is new; Mr. Brown’s descriptions of the orders are new, the defie 
nitions of the genera and species are likewise his own, and every part abounds with observa- 
tions equally original and useful: nor are these, by any means, confined to the plants of New 
Holland, but numbers of them are applicable to botanical science in general. 
His specific characters, Mr. Brown seems to have formed more upon the plan of Linnzeus 
than of Jussieu; the latter author, in the Aundles d’ Histoire Naturelle, bas given an account of 
the species of several genera, in all of which his specific characters are rather abridged descrip- 
tions than-definitions. We should imagine that every one who has put it to the trial, will 
have found how much time is unnecessarily consumed in determining a species by examining 
the characters of Jussieu; nevertheless, it seems probable, that Mr. Brown proposes, at some 
future period, to form his specific characters upon this plan, as he hints at an intention of 
changing the Linnzan punctuation, and the use of the ablative case, in both which he has at 
present followed Linnzus. In our opinion these changes will not be for the better; for, ale 
though since the happy invention of trivial names, the specific phrase is no longer necessarily 
to be committed to memory, and therefore, perhaps, need not be absolutely limited within 
the compass of twelve words; yet they ought certainly to be as short as possible, and should 
contain no character but such as is necessary to distinguish the species from every othere 
These specific characters must, indeed, be necessarily imperfect and in want of perpetual 
change, as long as new discoveries are daily adding to the list of species before known; but 
this only shews the imperfection, not the want of fundamental excellence, in the system it- 
self. While such imperfections exist, abbreviated descriptions are usefully added, but if these 
should be necessarily subjoined to every species, the practical utility of specific phrases will 
everremain; and inthe Latin language, at least, the ablative case cannot, without inconve« 
pience, be ceded to the nominative. We sincerely hope to see the rare abilities of this excele 
dent botanist employed in perfecting, not in supe:seding, these highly useful specific defini- 
tons, 
