448 Literary Notices, 



published. It contains upwards of 660 pages. The price is 



165. 



The Birmingham Botanic Garden, or Midland Floral Ma- 

 gazine, to contain accurate delineations, with botanical and 

 popular descriptions, of plants cultivated in the stove, the 

 green-house, or the open garden, and remarkable either for 

 their beauty, their rarity, or the singularity of their structure : 

 to be conducted by G. B. Knowles, Esq. M. R.C.S., F.L.S., 

 &c, ; and F. Westcott, Esq. : honorary secretaries of the 

 Birmingham Botanical and Horticultural Society. It is an- 

 nounced that No. 1. is to be published on Aug. I. 1836. 



A Letter from Mr. N. B. Ward to Sir W. J. Hooker on the 

 Growth of Plants without open Exposure to the Atmosphere, 

 published in the Companion to Curtis' s Botanical Magazine, 

 the number for May, 1836. It seems that the principles are 

 the following : — Plants are planted in cases, in congenial soil, 

 watered, and the water drained off, and the cases rendered 

 air-tight in the glazing ; and it is proper that they should be 

 air-tight in every other part. Owing to the prevention of the 

 escape of the moisture contained in the case, plants will grow 

 for many months, and even years, without requiring fresh sup- 

 plies of water. The degree of developement to which the 

 plants will attain depends, mainly, ceteris paribus, upon the 

 volume of air contained within the case, and upon the quan- 

 tity of light and solar heat received by the plants. Owing to 

 the expansibility of the air by the action of heat, there must, 

 with every change of temperature, be a corresponding change 

 in the volume of air contained within the cases. Without 

 such a variation, the plants would, in all probability, perish. 

 Mr. Ward has appended two letters in testimony of the suc- 

 cessful transportation from England to Sydney and Cairo of 

 plants conditioned according to these principles ; and he thinks 

 animals of the lower tribes, so conditioned, might be introduced 

 to Britain from abroad. The Companion to Curtis' s Botanical 

 Magazine is Is. 6d. a number. 



The Principles to be observed in Botanical Classification. 

 Dr. Lindley has intimated, in the preface to his Natural Sys- 

 tem of Botany, that he was contemplating the early publication 

 of views of his upon the above subject. 



Annual Report of the Regents of the University of the State 

 of New York, made to the Legislature, Feb. 29. 1836. 8 vo, up- 

 wards of 240 pages. Albany, 1836. This contains much mat- 

 ter relative to meteorology, of which some use may be made 

 in a future number. 



