48 NOTICES OF BOOKS. 
* During my sojourn,” he says, “I saw much that excited my 
interest in a scientific point of view, and much that I admired 
in its social condition and political economy ; all this, com- 
bined with the wish I felt during my wanderings to carry 
away with me a lasting recollection of what I witnessed, have 
been the principal motives for the present undertaking.” This 
talented Naturalist devoted much time and attention to the ve- 
getable productions of Barbados: it was, he observes, “ a favourite 
plan of mine to treat the Botany of the island in a more detailed 
manner, and in place of the usual dry scientific descriptions, to 
give a popular account of the plants, their uses and their pro- 
perties. My preparations,” he proceeds, “had been already far 
advanced, and the first sheet was printed, when I found that a 
continuation in that manner would alone fill about twenty sheets ; 
and I was reluctantly obliged to abstain from a task which I con- 
sidered one of the most delightful, connected with my projected 
work. Still I trust that if the subscribers, satisfied with the exe- 
cution of the History, give me their further assistance, I may 
execute my original plan, and publish a Flora of Barbados as a 
sequel to this work." We will hope that the learned author 
may one day accomplish his scheme. We must not suppose, how- 
ever, that Botany has been entirely neglected in the present volume : 
. there is a full and closely printed chapter of sixty-two pages, de- 
voted to the Flora of the island, and to introductory remarks on 
its vegetable productions generally. The catalogue of the flowering 
plants in the island amounts to eight hundred and ninety-six 
species ; but this includes the kinds cultivated or introduced from 
other countries, as well as those which are indigenous ; and this 
is of no small importance, as showing what may be introduced 
advantageously to the colony. Many notes are given worthy of 
extract, connected with imported plants. The famous Guinea- 
grass, Panicum jumentorum, we here learn was raised in the 
West Indies in 1744 (more than a century ago), by some seed 
brought from the coast of Guinea. Eleven kinds of Sugar-Cane, 
. introduced from various parts of the Old and New World, are in 
cultivation. Eleven Palms are enumerated, most of them im- 
