not been seen by Essex, to have been reconciled to him, when that nobleman with that purpose inquired for him from the scaffold, for though of a contrary faction, he called God to witness that he had no hand in his death, nor bore him any ill affection.

He concluded, to use his own words, and now I intreat you 'will all join me in prayer to that great God of Heaven whom 'I have grievously offended; (being a man full of vanity, who 'has lived a sinful life in such callings as have been most in'ducing to it, for I have been a soldier, a sailor and a courtier, 'which are courses of wickedness and vice, which his Almighty 'goodness will forgive me ;) that he will cast away my sins from 'me, and that he will receive me into everlasting life. So I take my leave of you all; making my peace with God.' Then saluting his friends, he said, 'I have a long journey to go, there'fore must take my leave.' When he had taken off his gown and doublet, he asked to see the axe; and repeating his request, said, 'Do you think I am afraid?' Feeling the edge of it, he said, 'This is a sharp medicine, but it is a sound cure for all diseases.' Upon being asked how he would lie on the block, he replied, if the heart be right, it is no matter which way the head lies.' Having reclined his head, after a short pause, he raised his hand; at which signal, his head was severed at two strokes; his body remaining unmoved.

ART. VII.-Prodromus Systematis naturalis Regni Vegetabilis, sive enumeratio contracta ordinum, generum, specierumque plantarum hucusque cognitarum, juxta methodi naturalis normas digesta. Auctore AUG. PYRAMO DE CANDOLLE. Paris. Pars I. 1824. Pars II. 1825. Pars III. 1828.

IN the rapid increase of knowledge which has distinguished the close of the eighteenth and the commencement of the nineteenth century, every department of science has felt the animating influence of improvement. The spirit of investigation is on all sides awakened and excited, and if its intensity has not increased, the circumference in which it moves, is constantly becoming more wide and more undefinable. The work before us may well suggest such reflections. It is scarcely a century

since botany began to claim any of the distinctions of science; at a much later period it was considered as so small a branch of the department of natural history, that it was generally included in it as a subordinate, although a favourite study. Even now it may be correctly viewed under the same aspect; but so wonderfully have the branches of this great stock expanded, that botany can be said now to comprehend many ramifications dependent on itself, each of which may occupy and amuse the leisure hours of a long life. Vegetable physiology, the distribution of plants as well as of animals comprehending the principles of classification, descriptive botany, or an examination and description of all the species of which the vegetable kingdom is composed, and even the history of the science, are each of them inquiries of great extent. In descriptive botany, instead of the limit which was once supposed to circumscribe its objects, instead of the ten thousand species which Linnæus, with all his information and in the height of his enthusiasm, believed would comprehend all the existing forms of vegetable life, we will not say, in the language of poetry, that ten thousand times ten thousand are rising up before us, but it is well known that the ascertained species are rapidly approaching to one hundred thousand, and new species, we might almost say new genera if not families, are annually added to the long catalogue of recorded names. This immense multitude, while retaining the distinct and characteristic features of vegetable life, is yet subdivided by strong lines of demarcation into many separate tribes. The first and most obvious division is that which removes from the great mass-though we sometimes begin to doubt which is the larger portion-all those whose organs of reproduction are obscure or hidden, those cryptic races, which the great father of classification supposed to delight in secret wedlock, giving no manifestation of the mysterious law by which their forms are perpetuated, even in many of their modifications affording some support to the unphilosophical doctrines of equivocal or spontaneous generation. This class is itself distributed into several families, the Filices, Musci, Algæ, Lichenes and Fungi of the Linnæan school, each of which has exclusively occupied the attention of distinguished naturalists, and still offers to persevering and successful sagacity, the rewards which science bestows on those who raise the veil that conceals from common observers her arangements and her principles. Even among the phanogamic plants, where the characters are more obvious and intelligible, and the size and structure more conspicuous, the numbers are multiplying so rapidly, that the memory can scarcely pursue them, and the powers of discrimination, if not

lost, would be bewildered were it not for that spirit of system which has arranged and introduced order into this mighty mass, and is constantly endeavouring to trace out the minute but powerful chords which connect the segments together, while it assigns to each portion, to each group, to each individual member or being, its appropriate and characteristic qualities. Yet with all the aids that science can furnish, this division may increase so much, that it will become necessary to distribute the task of examination among many associates, and each, instead of grasping at the whole must be content with viewing distinctly and accurately a limited portion. Perhaps in a short time it will become common even for eminent botanists, to devote themselves to some of those large and prominent groups in the vegetable kingdom, that constitute the natural families or orders, and thus by studying minutely and critically the separate parts, the conjoined labours of many will finally render the whole science more correct, more complete, more distinct, and more harmonious.

Let no one be discouraged because his knowledge, though not his labours will appear to be circumscribed; because he cannot as his predecessors were supposed to do, view the vast domain of nature as well in its minute details as in its general outlines. It is not in one department only that the march of science is moving on, as if in an interminable progress. Audax Japeti genus, the aspiring race of man is always aiming at objects that seem beyond its powers. By these efforts to compass the unattainable, it is perpetually advancing, and though it is now become arduous even to reach the bounds which have already been explored, yet the humbler aspirant if he do not labour to extend those bounds, to become himself a discoverer, may hope to examine carefully and accurately the space which has already been traversed. In every branch of knowledge, in all, at least, which depend on facts for their support, the increase and improvement has been great and rapid. In every department of natural history, the same results which we have noticed in botany are also perceived. Zoology is no longer the study of one individual; quadrupeds, and birds, and fish, and insects, are become distinct pursuits. Even the different orders of insects, as of vegetables, have attracted and fully occupied different observers, and their forms, and habits, and splendid drapery have been noted and delineated, until the imagination is almost become wearied with contemplating the boundless variety of organized beings, and the variety scarcely less boundless of habits, instincts and qualities. Let no one, we repeat it, be discouraged if in this wide theatre his occupation

and researches should appear to be more restricted. He profits by the labours of all; and if he can no longer bestow a very minute inspection upon each member of each group, where "numbers without number" crowd around him, yet his general views will be more correct and satisfactory, his generalizations more true and more profound, as they will be derived from the determination of a greater number of individual facts. By the division and subdivision of research, the myriads, whom no one person could examine and describe, will all fall to the allotment of some inquirer, and be made to afford some items to the general mass of human knowledge.

Nor should the perpetual expansion of this circumference deter the lover of natural history from engaging in its study. It should rather be a gratification to him that his occupations will be interminable, that curiosity, in its own nature insatiable, shall be supplied by fountains in themselves exhaustless. In no pursuit, perhaps, in which man engages, does he enter with so pure and disinterested an enthusiasm, with such devoted and exclusive ardour. There is none in which successful results appear to give more unmingled pleasure. Labor ipse voluptas, is the motto which should always be inscribed on his banner. When we have seen the wish expressed, that the valetudinarian could find "some light and pleasant mental pursuit that can be taken up and relinquished at pleasure, without producing much excitement," we have been constantly reminded of the resources which natural history could supply. How often, and how easily could its allurements make the dyspeptic forget his unquiet feelings, the infirm his lassitude and distress; they might even cause the fretful traveller to cease murmuring at rough roads, lost breakfasts or forgotten luncheons; or smooth the bed of him who wanders amidst the unbroken silence and deep solitudes of nature.

Amidst this ample range which botany now opens to our researches, it will be proper to limit our own speculations. We shall, therefore, at present, confine our observations to the arrangement and distribution of plants and their subsequent description, and in a country where these subjects have occupied but little of the public attention, we may, we hope, be excused, if we indulge in some preliminary discussion, and offer some remarks which, under other circumstances, might appear inappropriate if not superfluous.

We have formerly remarked, "that it is the great aim of natural history, when considered as a science, to group and * Southern Review No. 4, p. 413.

to arrange all the productions of nature, all modifications of being, on such principles, that the individuals of each group shall be connected by common qualities, by composition, by structure, by habit, and as an almost necessary consequence, by their properties and uses." That those, and only those species in each department of nature, may be thrown togetherwhich are intimately allied, so that the qualities which are ascertained to belong to one member of any group, may be expected as a practical corollary to extend through the whole series.

The early systems of natural history were in this respect unquestionably imperfect. The examination of natural bodies had generally been superficial, the comparative structure of animals had not been studied; chemistry, even now imperfect, was then but a series of crude and hypothetical opinions, and the fundamental principles on which the science ought to rest, had not been thoroughly investigated. Many distinguished naturalists, because under such circumstances, all could not be accomplished; perhaps all may never be accomplished-which theory represents as desirable, objected to system altogether, and proposed that the objects of nature should be considered individually and in detail.

There was a period when the discoveries in natural history were so limited, that such an effort might perhaps have been successful. It is almost unnecessary to remark how impracticable in the present state of science, would be such an attempt. If every quadruped, bird, reptile, fish, insect, and the still more imperfect animals; if every vegetable, now known, was to be considered and described as an independent and isolated being, and the characters which it may possess in common with some ascertained class, and order, and genus, in the great family to which it apparently belongs, are to be forever repeated, what termination could be proposed to such multiplied and unnecessary labours. How impossible to find minds so comprehensive, or memories so tenacious as to embrace and retain, without some technical aid, the varied and still unnumbered forms of nature. Who could pursue or connect his own studies without those general views which associate together multitudes of individuals by some common characters? Who could follow or comprehend the labours of another? Even if these characters were at first selected without a sufficient examination of their comparative value, they still served to mark and discriminate many species. The cloven hoof, the horn, the canine tooth, the webbed foot, are all conspicuous and valuable features; if they united species, not in all respects intimately allied, they, at