348 
NOTICES OF BOOKS. 
Third Edition of Da. Linpuzy’s ‘ Vegetable Kingdom.’ 
We record with great satisfaction the publication of a third edition 
of this invaluable work, not only because of its intrinsic merits, but 
as a proof of the rapidly increasing demand for sound botanical in- 
formation. The first edition. (an impression of 1000 copies) of the 
“Vegetable Kingdom’ appeared in 1846, and was followed in a few 
months by a second; since which the demand has not flagged. In 
the true spirit of advancement with the science he so ably cultivates 
and illustrates, Dr. Lindley has brought the present edition up to the 
state of botany at the present day, so far as it was practicable to intro- 
duce the required additions and alterations into a sterotyped work, A 
vast number of genera are added ; many beautiful woodcuts, and valua- 
ble information on all branches of botany, systematic, physiological, 
anatomical, and economic, are appended to a great many of the Natural 
Orders; so that the work is still what it was, the best and only really 
excellent English exposition of the vegetable kingdom in its widest 
sense. As such it not only lies by our side as a work of constant 
reference, but is the traveller's handbook of botany where none more 
bulky ean be carried, and is sent to all parts of the globe as the best 
instructor of the student or amateur. 
Of the new and peculiar views on nomenclature and idi which 
appeared in the earliest editions of Dr. Lindley's works on the na- 
tural arrangement of plants, many, though strongly opposed at first, 
have already gained universal consent. Others, though so long sub- 
mitted to the attention of botanists, have met with no favour, and 
we confess to feeling disappointed at finding them still permitted to 
retain so prominent a place. We allude especially to the value which 
is attached by the author to the classes of Dictyogens and Rhizanths; 
to the separation in a natural arrangement of Apocynacee from Ascle- 
piads, of Ericaceæ from Vacciniacee, and four or five others; and to 
the close approximation of Santalacee to <Aristolochiacea, Juncee to 
Orontiacee, and the separation of these last again from Aracee. We 
are inclined to believe that, in all these and in very many similar 
cases, too much stress is laid on mere technical characters (as the 
