92 NOTICES OF BOOKS. 



gingerbread-flavoured nuts ; Elms Guineensis^ the Oil Palm^ par excel- 

 lence; Euterpe edulis and E. oleracea^ the one affording a refreshing 

 drink, the other (together with Oreodoxa oleraced)^ the so-called Cah- 

 hage of the Palm ; Lodoicea Sechellarnniy the famous double Cocoa-nut ; 

 FhytelepJiaSj or A^egetable Ivory, and many others, cannot fail to prove 

 attractive to persons of all ages and both sexes, to the ignorant as well 



as to those already instructed in Botany, The author says, with jus- 

 tice, in the Preface, " I may safely affirm, without the fear of contra- 

 diction, that there is no work in existence, in any language whatever, 



in which an equal amount of information such as here given is to be 

 met with." 



United States Exploring Expedition; Vol, XVI. Botany : Cryp- 

 togamia, — Filices, including Hydkopterides ; ly William D, 

 Bbackenridge. Large 4to, with a folio Atlas of forty -six Plates, 

 Washington, U.S.A. 1854, 



We have had occasion to notice the first volume, or portion, of the 

 * Botany of the United States Exploring Expedition' (Phanerogamia), 

 by Dr. Asa Gray. We have now the pleasure of announcing another 

 portion of that work, of 357 pages, devoted to the descriptions of the 

 Ferns, accompanied by an Atlas of Plates : and this is from the pen 

 of Mr. Brackenridge, who had the great advantage of being one of the 

 botanists of the Expedition, and consequently of seeing the species in 

 their native locality, and gathering them with his own hands, a privi- 

 lege enjoyed by comparatively few botanical authors. Notwithstanding 

 the difficulties under which Mr. Brackenridge laboured for want of a 

 good botanical library at Washington, — and we may add, too, for want 

 of an authentic herbarium for comparison of species, — he has given to 

 the scientific world a most beautiful and highly creditable work, with 

 carefully-compiled and not too-laboured descriptions of such species as 

 are considered new, observations on many of the old, the whole illustrated 

 %vith a great number of excellent figures, drawn and engraved by a 

 young artist, Mr. William B. Lawrence; of whom he says, "as it was 

 his first attempt at this kind of drawing, and, not being constantly 

 under my supervision, there frequently occurred omissions, or but 

 partial representations of the minor details ; such as the greater or 

 less hirsuteness of the stipes, rachis, and costa, or in respect to other 



