30S 



CATALOGUE RAISONNE. 



Reflections on the Decline of Science in England, and on some 

 of its Causes. By CHARiiES Babbage, Esq. Lucasian Professor" 

 of Mathematics in the University of Cambridge, &c. Pp. 228. 

 Fellowes, London 1830. 



We have been preventedj by the press of matter in the department of 

 *' Reviews," from pubhshing in the present No. our opinion of this im- 

 portant volume. We can only say on this occasion, that as the application 

 of any power is, ccet. par., as valuable as the invention of any other, this 

 work is calculated to give an impulse to science in this country, by no 

 means weaker than that which came from the hands of the immortal 

 Bacon. iMr. Babbage deserves well of his fellow-labourers for stepping 

 down from his chair to expose the practices of those from whom other 

 things might have been expected. He has conferred a benefit on Eng- 

 land which can never be forgotten, and which he was admirably fit- 

 ted to perform. The periodicals of London seem desirous of passing the 

 book over in silence : not so the freemen of the north. Dr. Brewster 

 has thought it worth while to print 35 pages verbatim from this work in 

 the No. of his Journal for the present month, (why did he omit the note 

 which bears such high testimony to the character of Dalton ?) and to us 

 it will become a text-book. 



It will be seen even from our present No. that we have been some time 

 yoked to the same drudgery as Mr. Babbage has undertaken ; and we 

 now rejoice in such a coadjutor. In the mean tjme, let every one who is 

 desirous of perusing one of the most gentlemanly but complete exjiosures 

 of nefarious doings and lamentable incapacity amongst men of scientific 

 repute, which perhaps was ever penned, immediately buy the book ; 

 and let every one who would support the character and reputation of 

 his country, buy the book. 



An Outline of the First Principles of Botany. By John Lind- 

 LEY, F.R.S. L.S. & G. S. &c. Professor of Botany in the Univer- 

 sity of London. Longman & Co. London, 1830. 



In this excellent -little work, the principles of botany are compressed into 

 106 24mo. pages; The matter is arranged under the following divisions : 

 Elementary Organs, Compound Organs, Root, Stem, Leaf-buds, Leaves; 

 Hairs, Food and Secretions, Flower-buds, Inflorescence, Floral Enve- 

 lopes, — Male Organs, Stamen, Disk, — Female Organs, Pistillum, Ovu- 

 lum, — Fruit, Seed, Flowerless Plants. The whole is disposed in the 

 form of numbered paragraphs, a plan which affords the greatest possible 

 facility of reference from one part of the work to another. The reader 

 will be able to forin some idea of the manner in which Professor Lind- 

 ley has executed his work, by the following specimen : 



227. The Flower-bud (143) consists of imbricated, rudimentary, or meta- 

 morphosed leaves, the external or inferior of which are usually alter- 

 nate, and the internal or superior always verticillate, or opposite ; the 

 latter are called Jloral envelopes and sexes, 



228. As every flower-bud proceeds from the axilla of a leaf, either fully 

 developed or rudimentary, it therefore occupies exactly the same posi- 

 tion with respect to the leaf as a leaf-bud. 



229. The leaf from the axilla, of which a flower-bud arises, is called a 

 bractea, or florul leaf ; and all rudimentary leaves, of what size or colour 

 soever, which appear on the peduncle between the floral leaf and the ca- 

 lyx, are called bracteol<B. 



230. But in common language, botanists constantly confound these two 

 kinds, which are, nevertheless, essentially distinct. 



