Bibliographical Notices. 197 



rivalled Gardens of Kew — constituting a most valuable and charac- 

 teristic feature of an institution of which the British botanist has 

 good reason to be proud — made an epoch in the study of vegetable 

 products, and a glance at the pamphlet before us shows the remark- 

 able progress that has been made in a few years. This Museum, 

 founded in 1847, has already outgrown its original tenement, wherein 

 it gradually invaded room after room until it filled the house. 

 Another building, of dimensions suited to the growing importance of 

 the collection, is about to be erected in the Gardens. On looking 

 over the multifold objects at present displayed, it is not difficult to 

 distinguish a number of substances whose nature and origin have 

 been revealed through the inquiries set on foot in this Museum, — 

 forming as it does a centre for the reception of information of this 

 kind. New facts, frequently furnished from all parts of the world, 

 are now at once received and enrolled in the chronicles of science, 

 instead of being scattered, often to be lost, in books of travels and 

 private letters ; and new or rare products are no longer buried in 

 private collections of " curiosities," occupants of the drawing-room 

 in one generation, of the lumber-room and the rubbish-heap in the 

 next. 



The objects were at first arranged in the Kew Museum according 

 to their structure or uses. This was found inconvenient in many 

 respects ; especially that of requiring repetitions, when, as is not un- 

 commonly the case, the same plant yields substances of very varied 

 uses. The objects are now arranged in cases devoted to the natural 

 orders of plants ; a plan not only more consistent with scientific 

 notions, but really conveying much more knowledge to the ordinary 

 observer. The pamphlet which has served as the text of these 

 remarks is a catalogue raisonne of the objects now exhibited. It 

 contains a vast amount of information compressed into a small 

 compass, much of which is new, and founded upon letters received 

 with the objects from correspondents in all parts of the world ; — much 

 collected from works with which botanists only are acquainted, and 

 many of which are not easily accessible. As an authoritative index 

 to the useful substances furnished by the various orders of vegetables, 

 this little book is not merely an indispensable guide to the Museum for 

 which it was compiled, but it will be found a most valuable aide- 

 memoire by all those who are occupied with this department of 

 knowledge. Further, as it indicates the boundaries of our present 

 acquaintance with exotic vegetable products, it is most desirable that 

 it should be in the hands of all travellers, and all residents abroad 

 whose tastes and opportunities allow of their devoting attention to 

 natural objects. 



A Handbook to the Marine Aquarium, By P. H. Gosse. 

 London: Van Voorst. 1855. 12mo. 



The great importance of the Aquarium as a means of extending 

 our knowledge of marine zoology is now so generally admitted, that 

 there is little need for us to dwell upon it. Since the principle of 



