t1>e Royal Society's Tranfactions ; and thofe of Muller, in the Flora D.r. 

 and Nova Asia Petropolitana; in which works thefe diftinguifhed naturalifts 

 have displayed their accu domed accuracy and talent for minute investigation. 

 Such being the cafe, I truft that this work, by elucidating the fynonymy of 

 thefe, as well as of the more modern authors, and by the variety of new matter 

 it contains, will be found fo far to clear the way as to induce others, with more 

 leifure and ability than myfelf, to purfue the ftudy, and perfect our knowledge 

 of a tribe than which none will be found more intevefting. The purfuit, though 

 not otherwife of high importance, tends, as Dr. Smith obf.rve c , ' to enliven 

 the fcenes of rural retirement, to relieve the mind amid the bufy purfuits of 

 active life,' and carries with it its own reward in the conftant fonrce of amufe- 

 ment which it prefents to the ftudent wherever he goes, and in the complacency 

 which an inveftigation of the works of nature never fail to excite in the mind, 

 befides the higher objecT: of teaching man to admire and adore his Maker in the 

 works of I'.is hand. 



M. Girod Chantrons, in his Rcchevches fur les Conferves-, has, both by 

 chemical analyfis, and by obfervations on their ftru£lure, endeavoured to prove 

 that the Conferva are either real animals or of animal origin; and that many of 

 them are actual Polypi, others the habitations of thefe animals, and others 

 again, aggregations of Polypi, fo attached together as to form a tube. It ap- 

 pears to me, fo far as I am able to judge from the drawings and defcriptions, 

 that this work is too inaccurate to merit mucli attention. Dr. Treviranus, in 

 his B'wlgW, has gone flill further, and propofes to unite, not only the Con- 

 ferva:, but the whole clafs Cryptogamia with the Zoophytes, and thus form a 

 fourth kingdom, intermediate between the animal and vegetable. I cannot 

 help fufpecting that thefe authors have given too much fcope to their imagi- 

 nation, and the more fo, as a fimiiar analyfis by M. Vauquelin, has been attended 

 with fuch different refults, as to confirm him in the oppofite and generally 



* This work, which I have not myfelf feen, is wholly quoted on the authority of SprengelV 

 JnlreJucticn i§ Bttany. c 



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