7 



Juncaginaceous ; the Alismaceous ; the Palmaceous, includ- 

 ing 58 genera and 322 species ; the Juncaceous ; the Phily- 

 draceous ; the Restiaceous ; the Desvauxiaceous ; the Erio- 

 cauloneous. This work is a most useful aid to DeCandolle's 

 Prodromus ; but both drag their slow along at a rate which 

 is by no means satisfactory to the public, or necessary as 

 regards the labour of the authors ; especially if we consider 

 the manner in which M. Kunth's labour is performed. An 

 industrious Botanist with the skill of M. Kunth, and a couple 

 of good clerks, would produce four such volumes a year. 



Synopsis Plantarum sea Enumeratio Systematica Plantarum plerumque adhuc 

 cognitarum cum diferentiis specificis et synonymis selectis, ad modum 

 Persoonii elaborata auctore Dr. David Dietrich, 2 vol. 8vo. 



One of the most useful books we ever had was Persoon's 

 Synopsis Plantarum, which is now too obsolete to be ot any 

 practical value. The man who shall produce such another 

 book will be deserving well of the community of Botanists 

 for the rate of progress of the works of DeCandolle and 

 Kunth is much too slow to keep pace with the rapidly aug- 

 mentino; number of systematical publications. Those works 



ginal 



d much new matter, which of 



l 



.tself retards the publication of them, especially of the former 

 A work of much humbler pretenses, wh-c^h should mere^ g ve 

 what has been published by others, in the language of ^the 

 authors, and without proposing to correct what others have 

 done, or to add to their investigates, would merely gather 

 to "ether into one place the multitudes of spec.es, good or bad, 

 which swal in t£ publications of the £«£ *£,*««£ be a 

 most welcome addition to our Botanical ****£- » ls » 

 mere labour of transcribing, and might be published by an 

 active man in a twelvemonth. When then Dr David D.ctnch 

 r n noun™cd his plan of republishing the excellent Synops. of 

 Persoon, we at least were eager to buy his book although, 

 we confess, his adhering to the old Linnean classification said 

 little for his credit as a Botanist, and was an mil augur) as 

 f his undertakine Yet we thought that he might have been 

 l"ned rt t: k ^rinee his own views to U» , *»»«££ 

 of bibliopolists, and that a good book might still «££•' 

 a though in masquerade. Indeed, the example of Sprcngel 



and lnl miserable specks plantarum was, in our eyes, a surety 



3l \ 



