154 NOTICES OF BOOKS. 



Extract of a Letter from Rev. G. Nicol, dated Regent, Sierra Leone, 



February 18, 1857. 



" I have discovered a plant here, the properties of which may interest 

 you and gentlemen of the medical profession. It is one which our 

 people here use in the same way, and for the same purpose, as blister 

 is used by Europeans. The effects are the same in nature, although 

 different in degree, this being more powerful : it is a poison. The 

 leaves, in their green state, are ground, spread upon a small piece of 

 cloth, and applied to that part of the body which is in pain. It is 

 kept on from five to eight minutes, not more. In fact the patient can- 

 not endure it for a longer space : in that short time it draws wonder- 

 fully. It is extremely painful, and takes more than a week (according 

 to the native treatment) to heal up. The beneficial effects, I under- 

 stand, are great.' 5 



[The leaves above alluded to, which have been sent by our obliging 

 correspondent, prove to be those of Clematis grandiflora of De Candolle, 

 and of the Niger Flora. — Ed.] 



Dried Plants of M. Huet du Pavillon. 



The beautifully prepared collections of plants (alluded to in our last 

 Number, p. 85) of M. Huet du Pavillon, made in 1856, in Sicily, Ca- 

 labria, and Abruzzo, are now being distributed, all correctly named. 



NOTICES OP BOOKS. 



First Lessons in Botany and Vegetable Physiology {illustrated by over 

 360 wood Engravings, from original drawings, by Isaac Sprague), to 

 which, is added a copious Glossary or Dictionary of Botanical Terms ; 

 by Asa Gray, Fisher Professor of Natural History in Harvard Uni- 

 versity (U. S. Am.). 



It is very seldom that we feel called upon to notice elementary works 

 upon botany, nor should we do so now, did not Professor Gray's book 

 appear on several grounds to demand something more than a passing 

 notice. That it should prove excellent is only what every one must 

 have expected ; for Professor Gray has a thorough knowledge of his 

 subject ; he is a successful teacher, a lucid and accurate writer, and a 



