388 Catalogue ilaisonne. 



A systematic arrangement of British Plants ; by W. Wither* 

 ING, M.D. Corrected and condensed : preceded by an Introduc- 

 tion to the Study of Botany, accompanied with Figures, by W. 

 Macgillivray, A.m. &c. 12mo. Pp. 391. With 10 Plates. 

 Dove, London, 1830. Price 10s. 



We are again prevented, by press of matter, from giving such a lengthened 

 review of the merits of Mr. Macgillivray's little volume as we could have 

 wished, and as any production from that gentleman deserves. Rather, 

 however, than permit any longer delay in recommending it to the notice 

 of our readers, we give it a place in our Catalogue Raisonnd ; for it is 

 already sufficiently unfortunate in being put forth at so late a period of 

 the botanical season. 



This little manual is avowedly an abridgment of Withering's large work, 

 deprived, however, of that which made the original so popular, — its in- 

 teresting notices of the properties and uses of plants. Mr. M'Gillivray's 

 abstract comes, then, more truly under the idea of a systematic work, 

 and accordingly claims for itself a place beside the manuals of Smith, 

 Hooker, and Galpine. From the " British Flora" of Hooker, very re- 

 cently published, we observe that Mr. Macgillivray has selected severaj 

 of its novelties, though there does not appear to be sufficient reason for 

 his neglecting at least one of the most important. The Equtsetum Drum- 

 mondii is a species first published in the " British Flora, and ought to 

 have been added to Mr. Macgillivray's work on " British Plants," when 

 he quoted from Hooker the Hymertophyllum Wilsoni, another new spe- 

 cies. 



The principal excellence of this new Flora, seems to be its cheapness and 

 its aptitude for teaching the rudiments of the science, — containing good 

 plates of the forms of roots, stems, leaves, and flowers, with a glossary 

 of terms, and directions for examining plants and preparing herbaria. 



Characters of Genera, extracted from the British Flora of W. J. 

 Hooker, LL.D. &c. Carfrae, Edinburgh, 1830. 



Dr. Graham, perceiving the actual necessity of a synopsis of generic cha- 

 racters to a botanical work which was to be made the text-book of stu- 

 dents, has published this little pamphlet, which will be indispensibly re- 

 quisite to all who possess the " British Flora." 



On the Systems of Numerical Signs used by different Nations, 

 and on the Origin of the Expression of Value by Position in the 

 Indian Numbers. By Alexander von Humboldt. — Quarterly 

 Journ. of Science, June 1830. 



In this learned and interesting essay, which was read in a class session of 

 the Royal Academy of Sciences in Berlin, we find the following addi- 

 tional information on the numerical signs of the Muyscas, to which we 

 have alluded in a notice on the Asiatic origin of the tribes inhabiting 

 the uplands of Bogota : — 



" In the Chibcha language of the Miiyscas, (who, like the inhabitants of 

 Japan and of Thibet, had an ecclesiastical and a laical chief ; and whose 

 method of intercalating the 37th month, like the inhabitants of North 

 India, has been published and explained by me,| 11, 12, 13, are called 

 foot one (quihieha ata,) foot two (quihieha bosa,) foot three (quihieha 

 mica,) from quihieha or quhieba (foot,) and the first three unities, ata, 

 bozha or hosa, and mica. The arithmetical signification of fwt is ten, 

 because the foot begins to be taken into account, when both hands are 

 passed through. To express twenty, the Muyscas use in their arithme- 

 tic&l lauguage the expression /«o< ten, or the small house (gueta,) perhaps 

 becHUse they used, ia counting, grains of maize, and such a heap of 



