Bibliographical Notices. 213 



rarest flower; — witness the important results obtained by Mirbel from 

 the study of the Marchantia polymorpha. The toilsome labours of 

 the collector are not required here, nor is the mind fatigued by the 

 difficulties and technicalities of classification ; and what renders the 

 pursuit of this science especially adapted to the female sex is its 

 freedom from the necessity of that corporeal suffering, which, how- 

 ever laudable its ultimate object, the truly humane mind will always 

 dread to inflict upon its sentient fellow- beings. 



There is another class upon which we would urge the necessity 

 of attention to Vegetable Physiology — the students of medicine. 

 Those who are sufficiently enlightened to perceive that a knowledge 

 of the actions of the human body in health is the best preparation 

 they can have for the study of its diseased conditions, will find it 

 much to their advantage to have gained an early acquaintance with 

 the vital phaenomena exhibited by plants, which often exhibit changes 

 whose conditions are obscure in animals, in a magnified form as it 

 were, and in circumstances which, allow them to be more easily stu- 

 died. We especially refer to those concerned in reproduction and 

 in the act of organization, on which new and important contributions 

 have been recently made to vegetable physiology, that have led to 

 equally successful researches into the corresponding mysteries of 

 animal life. No one, it seems to us, can now be esteemed a sci- 

 entific physiologist who does not embrace in the scope of his in- 

 quiries all classes of animated beings, and the more extended his ba- 

 sis the more certain and comprehensive will be his generalizations. 



Periodical reports of the progress of any special department of 

 science are, if well executed, among the most valuable additions to 

 its literature, and this is particularly the case when the number of 

 its cultivators is great, so that their contributions are spread over a 

 wide surface. There is perhaps no science which stands more in 

 need of such comprehensive sketches than Vegetable Physiology, 

 and no individual who could execute them with more success than 

 Prof. Meyen. Of the mass of information brought together in the 

 Report before us, a great part would never have reached this country 

 if it had not been thus embodied ; and if it be thought that he has 

 manifested less acquaintance with the progress of science in England 

 than with the labours of German physiologists, it will be remem- 

 bered that the fullness with which the latter are presented should 

 make it peculiarly acceptable to the English reader, who may be 

 supposed to be acquainted with the labours of his countrymen. The 

 translation is very ably executed, and presents the ideas of the au- 

 thor with greater force and precision than most of our readers would 



