408 



REVIEWS. 



Art. IV. — A Report on the Progress of Vegetable Physiology 

 during the year 1837. By F. J. F. Meyen, M.D., Professor 

 of Botany in the University of Berlin. Translated from the 

 German by William Francis, Associate of the Linnaean 

 Society. R. and J. E. Taylor. 



Our continental scientific brethren far exceed our own 

 countrymen in the modes they adopt of making known the 

 results of their researches to the world. Independently of a 

 numerous and well-arranged series of journals^ under the va- 

 rious titles of Journaux and Annales in France, and Annalen, 

 Archiv, Repertoria, &c. in Germany, we see, emanating from 

 the press of these respective countries, a series of scientific 

 annuals in the shape of reports on the progress of science, 

 edited by some scientific man, whose name in general is alone 

 a sufficient guarantee for their accuracy. Even Sweden, 

 under the auspices of Berzelius, is not only not behind-hand, 

 but may be said to have set this excellent example; for 

 eighteen years has the Jahres-bericht des Physischer Wissen- 

 schaften regularly appeared at Stockholm; and every Euro- 

 pean chemist and philosopher has for as many years hailed 

 its appearance as a most valuable source of information, em- 

 bodying, in a volume of some 400 pages, an abstract of all 

 the researches made in the different departments of experi- 

 mental science during the preceding twelve months. In like 

 manner various annual reports or Jahrbuchs of Pharmacy, 

 Medicine, Botany, &c. regularly appear in different parts of 

 Germany, and among them the Annual Report on the Pro- 

 gress of Vegetable Physiology, by Prof. Meyen, holds a high 

 and distinguished place. The naturalist, to whom, from ig- 

 norance of the language in which it is written, this valuable 

 Report must have remained a sealed book, cannot fail to re- 

 ceive with pleasure this excellent translation from the pen of 

 Mr. Francis. Few men are so well qualified to offer a trans- 

 lation of Prof. Meyen's Report to the public as Mr. Francis ; 

 for in addition to his familiarity with the German language, 

 he possesses no mean acquaintance with the sciences to 

 which the report is itself devoted, and he therefore must be 

 distinguished from the great mass of translators, as feeling 

 and understanding that which he has to clothe in an English 

 garb. Prof. Meyen commences with a remark on the neces- 

 sity of drawing a distinction between mere descriptive Botany 

 and Phytology, or Vegetable Physiology, a distinction analo- 

 gous to that which exists between Zoology and Comparative 

 Anatomy. 



