306 BOTANICAL GARDEN AT CALCUTTA. 



by finding a Nipalese pine surrounded by trees indigenous to 

 Bengal, or some inhabitants of Malacca, so densely crowded, 

 in such a ' sable throng,' as though it were the intention of 

 the superintendent to try, on a large scale, with how little 

 free access of air vegetation may be carried on. Such heap- 

 ing together, such disregard to geographical distribution, may 

 perhaps pass by way of experiment ; whether the total absence 

 of plots allotted to the Linnean arrangement or the natural 

 families, in a ' botanical ' garden, may pass under the same 

 head, is another question : be this as it may, the botanical 

 student will search in vain for either. 



This establishment, forming a no small item in the Com- 

 pany's annual expenses, ought to prove of some little use to 

 the public, — particularly now that Calcutta boasts a medical 

 college for natives. How far the students can study Botany 

 in a 'botanical' garden, without catalogue, herbarium, artifi- 

 cial or natural arrangement, is unnecessary to speculate upon; 

 it would be a more desirable topic for speculation, to point 

 out the most expedient manner in which this fallen, but still 

 noble institution, might, instead of proving, as it of late has 

 done, a bar to science, — be restored to its original purpose, 

 which the liberality of its supporters and the public at large 

 have a right to expect ; viz.,that of promoting science, — in 

 short, that of being a botanical garden. 



I remain, Sir, 



Your obedient servant, 



Philaletes. * 



May, 1839. 



REVIEWS. 



Art. I. — 1. The Coleopterisfs Manual; containing the Lamellicorns of Lin- 

 n&us and Fabricius. By The Rev. F. W. Hope, F.R.S., F.L.S., 

 F.Z.S., &c. &c. 8vo. pp. 126. 4 pi. London : H. G. Bonn, 1837. 



2. The Coleopterisfs Manual, part the second ; containing the predaceous 

 Land and Water Beetles of Linneeus and Fabricius. By the same. 8vo: 

 pp. 184, 4 col. pi. London: 1838. 



The appearance of these works, together with the numerous memoirs 

 published in our various journals and transactions devoted to Natural 

 History, fully prove the fact that scientific exotic Entomology, so long 

 neglected by English entomologists, (if we except the venerated names 

 of Kirby and Leach), is at length gaining a share of that attention 

 which had been bestowed, almost exclusively, upon the insect produc- 



1 Communicated to the Magazine with an authentic signature. Ed. 



