90 NOTICES OP BOOKS. 



ledge them as imitations of his costly plates ; and this ochraceous 

 brown colouring is carried to such an extent in the frontispiece, repre- 

 senting the interior of the Palm-Jiouse of Kew^ that it has called forth 

 the just criticism in the * Gardeners' Chronicle/ "If it were really like 

 truth, the Palm-house must be a furnace in which nothing living could 

 exist." The otitline figures of Wallace are infinitely to be preferred to 

 these ; and Wallace has^ besides, given some good figures and represen- 

 tations of spatbas, spadices, and fruits, so that a tyro may form some 

 notion of the inflorescence, of the flowering and fruiting of these 

 *' Princes of the Yegetable Kingdom.'* We are quite sure that the 

 work would not be less popular if the faults we have noticed were cor- 

 rected, and we are equally sure it would be more useful : it would lead 

 the uninitiated to take greater delight in the wonders of the vegetable 

 creation, and to a desire for a higher degree of scientific knowledge. 

 We trust that what we have been led to complain of is not occasioned 

 by a desire *^to meet the wishes of the publisher." Certainly the 

 publisher is no gainer, and we know, from Dr. Seemann's previous 

 botanical writings, and the plates and analyses tbat accompany them 



w 



(see, for example, the 'Botany of the Voyage of H.M.S. Herald'), 

 that he is as willing as he is capable of making all needful correc- 

 tions in a future edition : Verhnm sat. 



Taking, then, the most important part of the work, that which ap- 

 peals to tli^ mind rather than to the eye, it is deserving of great 

 praise; — the descriptive part popular and not unscientific. The vo- 

 lume is dedicated to Humboldt, whose highly complimentary letter to 

 the author on the occasion is given in the Preface. After a well- 

 written Introduction, giving a general account of the Palms, our author 

 has an essay on the geological and geographical distribution of Palms. 

 The rest of the work is devoted (300 pages) to a " detailed History of 

 Palms" from A to Z, — from Acrocomia to Zalacca, — the respective 

 species under their proper genera in alphabetical order, not indeed of 

 every Palm, but of those best worth knowing from their uses or curious 

 structure and history, or from the fact of their being in cultivation in 

 European gardens, and in that case accessible for inspection to those 

 who are never likely to see a Palm in its native locality. Seeraann 

 estimates the number of known Palms at about 600 species; those in 

 cultivation in our stoves about half that number. The former calcula- 

 tion is perhaps as much too low as the latter is too high. The almost 



