248 



NOTICES OF BOOKS. 



more 



Geographte Botanique RaisonnSIe, ou Exposition des Fails prin- 

 cipaux et des Lois concernant la Distribution GeograpUque des Plantes 

 de Vepoque aduelle; par M, Alpii. de Candolle. 2 vols. 8vo. Paris. 



{Continued fr&in p, 191.) 



Concluding remarJcs. 



We have novr concluded the agreeable task we undertook, of passing 

 under review the principal features and some of the principal facts con- 

 tained in M, de CandoUe's valuable work. This we have been the 



willing to do from the conviction that, owing to its great bulk, 

 and the considerable amount of botanical knowledge required to follow 

 any part of it, the chances of its perusal by the general reader are 

 much smaller than its merits deserve, and we would try to assure M. 

 de CandoUe that he would confer a further benefit upon scientific bo- 

 tanists, and diffuse a knowledge of the curious and difficult subject he 

 has shown himself so well able to discuss amongst a large class of in- 

 telligent readers, if he would prepare a condensed edition of his work. 

 In its present form it is too encyclopedic in extent and too diffuse m 

 style to become an introduction or text-book on the one hand, or a 

 work for general reading on the other. In the second volume especi- 

 ally there is a good deal of repetition, and unnecessary subdivision of 

 the subject into chapters^ articles, and sections. 



The Articles devoted to a few Meteorological questions and to the 

 Geographical origin of cultivated plants are, however excellent in them- 

 selves, out of place as here treated in detail, and would make good 

 foundations for separate treatises. In their present shape they cannot 

 be said to throw any light upon Botanical Geography, nor do they 

 indicate any new laws nor suggest any new modes of searching for 

 them. The absence of originality indeed throughout the volumes is 

 perhaps not their least striking feature, and is to be attributed to the 

 comparative barrenness of the subject in this respect, and not to any 

 lack of ingenuity, and still less of knowledge or industry, on the part 

 of the author ; and yet it appears that some perfectly original course 

 of study must be adopted or some new ideas must be conceived, in 



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relation to the subject of Botanical Geography, before further advance 

 can be attained in the direction now being followed, — some such bold 



