Bibliogrophical Notices. 277 



to find one of a more practical character. Nay, we are not sure that 

 the very means adopted by Mr. Stainton to provide for the greater 

 diffusion of his work, may not be found in reahty to impede its pro- 

 gress, for many a one seeing a book advertised as in four languages, 

 and ignorant of the pecuUar circumstances under which it was pub- 

 hshed, would be inclined to say to himself, — " I should like it well 

 enough in English, but I don't want a parcel of stuff I can't read." 



If, however, Mr. Stainton is resolved, for the sake of uniformity 

 or otherwise, to persist in the adoption of the tetraglot plan, we 

 should certainly recommend him to print his books in four parts cor- 

 responding with the four different languages. The present columnar 

 arrangement of the book renders it rather disagreeable to read, as the 

 matter referring to each species, instead of being condensed into two 

 or three pages, is spread out over eight or twelve ; and the only ad- 

 vantage we can see in this arrangement is the same as that of the 

 polyglot bibles already alluded to, namely that of furnishing different 

 readings of the same passage. We must confess that we have found 

 this conducive to a more correct understanding of our author's 

 meaning in one or two cases ; but nevertheless it is hardly a reason 

 that a writer would urge on his own behalf, and is certainly to be 

 deprecated for the sake of science. 



We trust that Mr. Stainton will take the remarks which we have 

 felt called upon to offer, in good part. They have been made entirely 

 from a feeling that energy and perseverance employed in what we 

 consider the unnecessary expansion of a book are to a great extent 

 thrown away, and in the hope that, being made in no unfriendly 

 spirit, they may induce him to take the matter again into considera- 

 tion before the publication of the next volume of his valuable and 

 interesting work. 



Sylloge Generum Specierumque Cryptogamicamm quas in variis 

 operibus descriptas iconibusque illustrataSy nunc ad diagnosim 

 redactasy nonnullasque novas interjectas ordine systematico dis- 

 posuit C. MoNTAGNE, D.M. &c. Paris, 1855. 8vo, pp. xxiv &498. 



It is now some five-and-twenty years since Dr. Montagne retired 

 from his labours as Chirurgeon Majeur, and settled at Paris, which 

 was, we believe, the place of his nativity. On his return he found 

 that cryptogamic botany was almost entirely neglected in France, and 

 that the collections made by expeditions sent out into various parts 

 of the world by the government were forwarded to foreign botanists for 

 determination. He had been long attached to botany, and had made 

 considerable collections of phsenogamic plants, and he at once formed 

 a resolution that this reproach should no longer be chargeable against 

 his countrymen, and he therefore applied himself diligently to crypto- 

 gamic botany. The time was well chosen in many respects, and 

 fortunate in the great improvements which had lately been made in 

 the microscope. There was ample room therefore before him for 

 disco"very, and in his own country he found abundant new matter for 

 investigation. With active habits he combined considerable know- 

 ledge of various kinds ; and his talent as a neat and accurate draughts- 

 man came greatly in aid of his other acquirements. His paper on 



