LITERARY NOTICES. 



267 



group includes a series of critical reviews of 

 important scientific publications, and of his- 

 torical accounts of the lives and labors of 

 workers in botany ; and the fourth group a 

 number of papers which owe their existence 

 to the discussions that followed the publica- 

 tion of Darwin's " Origin of Species." The 

 present volumes contain a selection of papers 

 from the third group, with a few essays on 

 subjects of general interest to botanists. 

 Most of these papers, unlike those of the 

 other groups, which are still in the market, 

 have long been out of print, and have not 

 been incorporated in any recent publication. 

 The selections have been made with the 

 thought of presenting, as far as might be, 

 a view of the growth of botanical science 

 during the fifty years through which the 

 papers run a period which, as the editor 

 observes, is marked by the gradual change 

 of ideas among naturalists upon the origin 

 and fixity of species that has broadened the 

 field of all biological investigation. The 

 period was also characterized by a great in- 

 crease and diffusion of the knowledge of 

 botany in the United States, and by the 

 growth of a body of earnest, energetic Ameri- 

 can botanists, who have not only given vigor 

 to the study and inspired interest in it 

 through all the schools, but have also con- 

 tributed to exalt the reputation of American 

 science; and these botanists are, and are 

 what they are, almost wholly by reason of 

 what Prof. Gray and his books taught 

 them. 



A glimpse of the condition of botanical 

 study in the United States at the beginning 

 of Prof. Gray's fifty years is afforded in the 

 first of the papers, which is a review of the 

 second edition of Lindley's " Natural System 

 of Botany," published in 1836-'37. The inti- 

 mation that " we do not intend to engage in 

 a defense of what is called the natural system 

 of botany " indicates that that system had 

 not yet fully conquered acceptance. Still, 

 the author assumed that the science could by 

 no other method be successfully and philo- 

 sophically pursued, and added: "The few 

 persons who remain at this day unconvinced 

 of its advantages are not likely to be affect- 

 ed by any arguments that we could adduce. 

 A somewhat larger number may perhaps be 

 found in this country who admit the impor- 

 tance and utility of the natural arrangement 



in the abstract, but decline to avail them- 

 selves of the advantages it affords in the 

 study of plants, because, forsooth, it is too 

 much trouble to acquire the enlarged views 

 of vegetable structure which arc necessary 

 for the application of its principles." But 

 the system had grown in favor during the 

 preceding six years. Twenty years later, in 

 the review of Henfrey's " Botany," 185*7, we 

 are given this picture of the condition of 

 botanical instruction here : " While in Eng- 

 land botany is scarcely an academical study, 

 here it pertains to collegiate and academical 

 instruction where it is taught at all. In 

 Europe not even an apothecary can be 

 licensed without passing an examination in 

 botany ; in the United States, we believe, it 

 forms no part, at least no regular part, of 

 the medical curriculum ; no medical school 

 has a botanical chair; and no knowledge 

 whatever of the science of the vegetable 

 kingdom, which supplies the materia medica, 

 is required for the degree of Doctor in Medi- 

 cine ! " With botanical chairs in a large 

 number of our leading universities and 

 schools, filled by experts who are engaged in 

 original work and encourage it in their stu- 

 dents ; and pupils in high schools knowing 

 more of the structure and qualities of plants 

 than the doctors Prof. Gray describes, we of 

 the present time have no reason to be ashamed 

 of the advance that has been made. From 

 these almost elementary considerations, the 

 reviews and essays follow the series of publi- 

 cations in the science and the course of dis- 

 cussion over the whole scientific world, while 

 having an eye primarily to America, includ- 

 ing such subjects as Van Mold's observations 

 of the cell ; De Candolle's theories of varia- 

 tion and distribution and of the origin of 

 cultivated plants, in reviewing which the 

 author displays the sharpness of his discern- 

 ment and the thoroughness of his knowledge 

 regarding American plants ; Radlkofer's and 

 Henslow's studies in fertilization ; the prin- 

 ciples of nomenclature and the definition of 

 species ; several local floras and special 

 studies, never forgetting those that are pri- 

 marily of American interest ; and those 

 studies in which Prof. Gray so greatly sup- 

 ported and aided Darwin, relative to variation 

 and the origin of species. In these notices, 

 while some of them seem to bristle with 

 technicalities and run to details, the techni- 



