We cannot avoid expressing at present our regret, that the distinguished author of the work entitled Illusci Lx otici, to which we have so often referred, should have dis continued it, in order to write popular books for home consumption. We trust, that his admirable talent for description and discrimination, and his inimitable pencil, will soon he again directed to objects more worthy of' them. We arc aware of the great importance of good elementary works; but for one who could continue the work just alluded to, or proceed on the same plan, with the new series of the Flora Londinensis, there are un doubtedly several quite adequate to supply any want of the other sort, that can be at present felt. On the same account, we regret the abrupt conclusion of the Historia Fucorum, by another distinguished author ; and though we cannot doubt, that a work on antiquities from his pen will bc minutely accurate, and equally learned, elegant, and amusing ; yet the world certainly abounds much morc in good antiquarians, though even they are not exceed ingly plentiful, than in Cryptogamists, such as he is.
New ilrrangcment of the Jungermannie.
We shall conclude this article, with a bricf notice of a new arrangement of the genbs Jungermannia, which has been proposed by Signior Giuseppe Raddi, of Flo rence, in a paper on the Jungermanntx of Tuscany, in serted in the Alemoirs of the Italian Society, Vol. xviii. Part i. division, Physics.
Signior Raddi's paper is altogether theoretical, and is to be considered, we conceive, as the Prodromus of a work on the rare Cryptogamic plants of Tuscany, which he announces in it. The thirty-seven species which he has characterised, we take to be intended merely as in stances of his new genera ; as it is inconceivable that the Florentine territory should not produce a greater number; and though there are several rare species among them, they have no pretensions, when viewed together, to the character of a selection of rare species.
After stating, that ever since the days of Alicheli, the necessity of some subdivision of the genus had been felt by various learned and celebrated botanists; and noticing slightly NIicheli's own subdivision of it into the genera Jungermannia, Muscoidcs, and Alarsilea, hc proceeds to remark, that " the difference between the' species of Jungermannia is so great, that many of them, as J. viticulosa, J. asplenioides, J. platyphylla, J. lxvi gata, J. cmarginata, Etc. are so nearly related to the frondose (foliose) mosses, as to agree with them in their natural characters, and even in many of the artificial marks employed to discriminate them, so that they ab solutely merit a place in that family." It is unfortu
nate, that we are not furnished with a character, either natural or artificial, of any foliose moss ; but certainly Signior Raddi must allude to characters of the plants of that family very different from any with which we are acquainted, if they enable him to blend the leafy but deoperculate Jungermannix with the leafy and operculate mosses. We wonder that he has not pressed Andrxa, and perhaps J. julacea, into his ser vice, as connecting links; as they surely have more af finity in habit than the Jungermannix, which Ile has instanced, and any °percolate moss. His proofs that the Jungermannix should he blended with the opercu late mosses, are these; both are branched, and vary in the number of their branches ; both produce roots with great facility ; some species of operculate mosses, as Bryum androgynum, Tetraphis pellucida, Etc. as well as Jungermannix, produce on the cnd of the stem pow dery beads, which he takes to be collections of buds ; and he reminds us, that the ovaria ot both have a catyptra. We are soiry that he has stopt short, after merely com mencing the most interesting part of his proof ; and can not help considering what he has advanced as altogether nugatory, unless further suppol Led.
But to proceed to Signior Raddi's arrangement. It is founoed chiefly on the strut Lure, consistency, and in sertion of the calyx, calyptia, capsule, and even the an therx, so that its basis is considerably more extensive than that lbrmerly Proposed by Hedwig ; and according to these, the genus Jungerniatalia of authors is divided into ten new genera, of hich the following are the names and characters : 1. Bellincinia. Calyx compressed, laciniato-dentate, sub-bilabiate, smooth. Calyptra of one piece, membra nous, pellucid, its bordei variously divided. Capsule ovate, or between ovate and roundish, dividing into four equal valves, supported on a delicate, pellucid, cellulose footstalk, the growth of which is remarkably rapid, as in the following genera.
The only species instanced is B. montana ; J. lxvigata of Hooker's British Jungermannix, t. xxxv.
II. Antoiria. Calyx coinprcssed, hilabiate ; the lips quite entire, somewhat rounded. Calyptra of one piece, its border variously divided. Capsule roundish, dividing into four equal valves.
Spikelets ovato-lanceolate, formed of imbricated con vex scales, containing the roundish anthei x, on a different individual.