506 NOTICES OF BOOKS. i 
satisfaction we have experienced in finding throughout the book 
that spirit of fairness towards others, whose researches have been _ 
made use of, which always adds so much to our esteem for an author, : 
and to our confidence in what he advances on the result of his own 
investigations. 
The value of the work to them who would wish to examine for 
themselves the numerous beautiful structures therein described 
and figured, is much increased by the full directions given for find* 
ing and securing specimens, and for preserving them for sae 
microscopical examination. 
Many have expressed to us a wish that the jue c 
equally interesting and beautiful group of minute plants, may be 
illustrated, in a similar manner with the Desmidiee, by the same 
talented pen and pencil, and we feel quite sure that the author’s 
reputation would insure for such a work a favourable reception by 
. the public. We could have wished that the introduction to the 
present volume had not been put into type until the last possible 
moment, since the views therein expressed by the author with 
reference to the Diatomaceæ must have undergone some modifi- 
cation when he became acquainted with Mr. Thwaites’s discoveries 
as to their mode of reproduction, announced some months ago in 
the “ Annals of Natural History;" we trust, however, soon to 
hear that Mr. Balfs is again devoting his particular attention to 
this tribe of plants, with a view to the production of such a work 
as has been suggested; when we doubt not that his excellent 
powers of observation will bring to our knowledge many interest- | 
ing phenomena of vegetable life of the highest physiological 
importance. i 
. PrawrEs NOUVELLES ou Rares d’ AMERIQUE; par STEPHANO 
Moricanr. Geneva: 1846, 4to. 
This work, containing outline figures, and occasionally a few dis- 
sections, of new or rare plants of S. America, chiefly of Drazil, is 
brought to a conclusion in one vol. 4to., with 173 pages of letter- 
press and 100 plates. We could wish from so rich a field, that 
more interesting subjects had been chosen than those that appear - 
here, for such would have much increased the value of the work- 
