382 NOTICES OF BOOKS. 



been usually called, Van Diemen's Land. This will extend to two vo- 

 lumes, and will be illustrated witb 180 plates. 



Such are briefly the important services whicb science owes to the 

 Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. But they are far from all. 

 Earely is a surveying voyage sent out, but it is, and has been ever since 

 the days of Cook, accompanied by one or more practical men of science, 

 whose discoveries have been turned to good account. Nor have our 

 Chief Secretaries for the Colonies been backward in encouraging, where 

 it seemed really needful, the formation of Botanic Gardens ; and their 

 powerful influence, and that of the Governors themselves, has been felt 

 in many ways in connection with the Kew Gardens and Museum, and 

 is exemplified at this moment in the researches of Dr. Mueller in North 

 Australia, as noticed in the pages of the present number of our 

 Journal. Equally deserving of praise and acknowledgment are the 

 services of the Head and various Chief OfBcers of the Foreign Office; 

 they embrace every opportunity to promote science in foreign countries : 

 witness the several exploratory journeys into Africa, the results of which 

 are more and more important every day. In that Office our valued 

 friend, George Lenox-Conyngham, Esq., is preparing a series of printed 

 Instructions for the study and collecting of objects of Natural History, 

 to be largely distributed among our Ministers and Consuls and the se- 

 veral political agents abroad, the results of which cannot fail to prove 

 valuable. 



We turn now to another powerful governing power, namely the 

 Honourable Court of Directors of the East India Company, whose 

 encouragement in former years to the cause of science, and of botany 

 in particular, called forth our hearty commendations in a memoir on 

 the subject, published in the 'Botanical Miscellany,' vol. ii. p. 90, as 

 follows: — "For a long series of years the East India Company have, 

 with a liberality which does them the highest honour, manifested a dis- 

 position to foster this branch of science (botany) ; well aware how much 

 we owe to the vegetable creation for our food, our clothing, our ships, 

 our buildings, and intmmerable articles connected with the arts, do- 

 mestic economy, and medicine ; so that commerce might in consequence 

 be materially benefited by an increased knowled(>*e of the vegetable 

 productions of India." Some notice then followed of the noble Bo- 

 tanic Garden of Calcutta (no less than five miles in circumference) ; of 

 the vast collections of plants made at the Company's expense ; of the 



