NOTICES OF BOOKS. 157 
1849. R. Wight, Illustrations of Indian Botany: Vaccinium, 9; Rho- 
dodendron, 1; Andromeda, 1; Gaultheria, 1. 
—— C. G. C. Reinwardt, The Vegetation of the Indian Archipelago, 
in Journal of the Hort. Soc, of London, vol. iv. : simple allusion 
to Andromeda, Clethra, and Rhododendron. 
1849, 1851. Joseph Hooker (the work at the head of this notice). 
To the above list should have been added perhaps a variety of pe- 
riodical publications like the Botanical Repository, Magazine, Register, 
Cabinet, Flower Garden, and others, both of this and foreign coun- 
tries; but it was thought unnecessary. 
In point of antiquity, the Ericeous family (in its extended sense) is 
among the oldest on record, inasmuch as there exist descriptions and 
figures of several of its members in ancient Chinese works ; in which 
country, as well as in Japan, these plants have continued favourite objects 
of garden culture, almost from time immemorial. But we have to deal 
here with the botanical literature of European languages only ; and we. 
find accordingly, that our earliest account is from the pen of the incom- 
parable Engelbrecht Kæmpfer, so far back as the year 1712. Since 
that period, and for more than a century, the additions, comparatively 
few, were made at distant intervals; so that, till the year 1819, all 
that we knew, including Kempfer’s plants, was comprised in about 
sixteen species. Within the last thirty-two years the number has 
multiplied at more than a six-fold rate; thanks to the labours of 
Blume, Griffith, Siebold, Hasskarl, Fortune, Wight, and Joseph 
Hooker. In De Candolle’s ‘Prodromus,’ sixty-six species were re- 
corded in 1839 ; more than one hundred are at present known. To 
Dr. Hooker alone we are indebted for the discovery of the amazing 
number of thirty-three new species of one genus alone, by far the noblest 
of the family, and, if viewed in the combined light of botanical and 
horticultural interest, undoubtedly the most magnificent and desi- - 
rable woody plants in the whole vegetable kingdom, on account of 
their stature; foliage, and flowers. To those who have not had the ~ 
advantage of seeing any of the Asiatic species of Rhododendrons in the 
wild luxuriance of their native growth, I may appeal, for a corroboration 
of my assertion, to the beautiful Rhododendron Exhibition, which took 
place a few years ago, at the Royal Botanical Society’s Garden in _ 
Regent’s Park. Bearing in mind, then, that each individual species of — 
this gorgeous instalment forms a valuable object of cultivation; that — 
