706 Smith's English Botany, 



the vast herbarium which has been collected under the direc- 

 tion of the East India Company, and by them recently, with 

 a munificence highly creditable to the Company, presented to 

 the Linnsean Society of London. In vol. iii. p. 27. Professor 

 Martins, too, elaborates the characters of the Indian Erio- 

 caulese and Xyridea^. 



To notice, again, the plates, as these display the very picking 

 of the continent of India, they cannot but be choicely beau- 

 tiful, or possessed of striking features; as of the latter character 

 we might name, among others, the Pinus excelsa, the Quercus 

 lamell6sa, and the Chamae'rops M.Qx\\dna, At the close of 

 the third volume an engraved map of India, occupying two 

 pages, is deemed equivalent to plates of five plants : in this 

 map are marked the routes of the following travellers, by 

 whom the botany of India has been successively explored, 

 although yet but partially: — Mr. Finlayson, Dr. Hamilton, 

 General Hardwicke, M. Leschenault de Latour, Mr. Moor- 

 croft, Mr. Royle, Colonel Sykes, Dr. Wallich, and Dr. 

 Wight. This was a happy thought, and valuable in itself as 

 is a map of India, its value must by this means be much 

 increased to botanical readers. The letterpress part'of »eaJfcli 

 volume is given collectively, and precedes the plates. * '^^^-^ 



Lindley^ John, F. R. S. &c. &c., Professor of Botany in the 

 University of London : An Introduction to Botany. 8vo, 



: 557 pages, with 6 copperplates and numerous engravings 

 on wood. London, 1832. 185. 



This admirable Introduction will, in all probability, hence- 

 forth be the text book of all botanists, both incipient and 

 proficient, of Britain, and of very many out of Britain as welL 

 It supplies a greater mass of facts, arguments, inferences, laws, 

 rules, terms, and other technicalities appertaining to the 

 charming science of botany than was ever before procurable 

 in Britain in one volume, and for many times the price. The 

 high professional reputation of its author is a sufficient surety 

 that its pages are occupied by no insignificant and superfluous 

 matter. The only fear will naturally be, that it oversteps the 

 ready apprehension of those unfamiliarised to the use of the 

 technical terms of botany : this fear, we can undertake to say, 

 need not be entertained, for it is the office of an introductory 

 work to explain and exemplify the application of the technical 

 machinery of a science; and all who know Professor Lindley 

 know that no man is more competent, we should say no 

 Englishman is so competent, to perform this task, in relation 

 to botany, iiv a simple, yet eloquent, perspicuous, and faithful 

 manner. • * ; 



