196 Bibliographical Notices. 



but the descriptiojis are interesting and often spirited. The amount 

 of facts collected from various sources, and the practical acquaintance 

 with the plants possessed by the author, concur to render this little 

 volume very acceptable to the scientific botanist as well as the 

 general reader. Twenty plates, illustrative of the most striking 

 forms, are given ; the drawing of them is tolerable ; but we must 

 exclaim against the abuse of the art of chromolithography exhibited 

 in the blue and dingy-yellow tinting. This, however, is a small 

 matter. We might suggest to the author, as he claims a scientific 

 value for the substance of his work, to add to a second edition 

 a systematic table of contents, and, if possible, a synopsis of the 

 genera. 



Museum of Economic Botany^ or a Popular Guide to the Museum 

 of the Royal Gardens ofKew. By Sir W. J. Hooker, Director. 

 Longman & Co. 1855. 



In most departments of human activity, practice at the outset far 

 outstrips Science, who, advancing cautiously, rule and measure in 

 hand, carefully surveys each step of ground over which she asserts 

 her mastery. It is long before she thus reduces under law and order 

 the extensive tracts discovered in the arbitrary /or«y5 of practice 

 into the region of the unknown ; but a time comes when practice 

 does not find it so easy to descend into " pastures new," and when 

 increased difficulties of existence render it no longer profitable to 

 waste strength in tentative excursions. Then Science assumes her 

 native pre-eminence, and becomes the leader and law-giver. 



This truth obtains in the science which deals with vegetables, or at 

 least is beginning to become manifest. Advice and instruction are now 

 sought from the botanist when new materials are required for textile 

 fabrics, for paper, for supplying oleaginous substances, &c. ; and this 

 demand upon the scientific man is one that must necessarily increase. 



The vegetable substances indigenous, or commonly cultivated in 

 the countries inhabited by civilized nations, have long formed but a 

 portion of those used for purposes of manufacture or as articles of 

 luxury. We find many products mentioned in the Greek and 

 Roman writers as obtained from the " East," the real nature and 

 sources of which were unknown, and enveloped in mysterious or 

 fantastic fables. In the middle ages, and more especially after the 

 discovery of the New World and the Cape passage, these substances 

 multiplied rapidly in commerce. When botanical travellers at length 

 began to carry scientific curiosity into distant regions, some progress 

 was soon made in the discovery of the sources of the gums, woods, 

 fibres, and similar materials, which, though well known to the dry- 

 salter or the cabinet-maker, were stumbling-blocks to the botanist. 

 The formation of museums was another important step to the regu- 

 larization and accumulation of knowledge thus acquired ; but it can 

 hardly be said that this department of the science had been the object 

 of a worthy systematic pursuit until of late years. 



The formation of the Museum of Economic Botany in the un- 



