Notices and Analyses. 71 



practicable, some change will be made in this arrangement. Without 

 attributing undue importance to matters of science, we consider it 

 most desirable that this eminent individual should be permitted to 

 remain, to complete an undertaking which, in fact, reflects as much 

 credit upon the East India Company as upon the author himself. 



An Introduction to the Natural System of Botany ; or, a 

 Systematic View of the Organization, Natural Affinities, and 

 Geographical Distribution of the whole Vegetable Kingdom ; 

 together with the uses of the most important species, in Medi- 

 cine, the Arts, and Rural or Domestic Economy. By John 

 LiNDLEY, F. R. S. L. S. &c. Professor of Botany in the University 

 of London. 1 vol. 8vo. Pp. 374. London. Longman & Co. 

 1830. 



In accordance with the plan on which we have arranged the New Series 

 of this Journal, we do not profess to give a systematic review of any 

 scientific work ; being convinced that such an article could only be 

 admitted into a monthly periodical like ours, to the exclusion of mat- 

 ter more generally interesting and instructive. Professor Lindley 

 must, therefore, not conclude that, because we devote small space to 

 the notice of the volume before us, we are ignorant of its value. 



The object which the Professor has proposed to himself, is sufficiently 

 explained in the title-page : but we beg our readers to understand, 

 that the result of his labours is not intended to be — as some have 

 imagined — a technical introduction to botany, but to the Natural 

 System. It presupposes in the student, an acquaintance with the 

 ordinary language of botanical science, and some knowledge of the 

 laws of vegetable organization. 



The plan adopted (to use the author's own words) is this: — " To 

 every collection of orders, whether called class, division, subdivision, 

 tribe, section, or otherwise, such remarks upon the value of the cha- 

 racters assigned to it are prefixed, as the personal experience of the 

 author, or that of others, shews them to deserve. To every order 

 the NAME is given which is most generally adopted, or which appears 

 most unexceptionable, with its synonymes, a citation of a few autho- 

 rities connected with each, and their date ; so that, from these quota- 

 tions, the reader will learn at what period the order was first noticed, 

 and also in what works he is to look for farther information upon it. 

 To this succeeds the diagnosis, which comprehends the distinctive 

 characters of the order, reduced to their briefest form, and its most 

 remarkable features, without reference to exceptions. The latter 

 are adverted to, in what are called anomalies. Then follows the 

 ESSENTIAL CHARACTER ; a brief description of the order, and all its 

 most important particulars. This is succeeded by a paragraph styled 

 AFFINITIES, in which are discussed the relations which the order bears 

 to others, and the most remarkable circumstances connected with its 

 structure, in case it exhibits any particular instance of anomalous 

 organization. Geography points out the distribution of the genera 

 and species over the surface of the globe ; and the head properties 

 comprehends all that is certainly known of the use of the species in 

 medicine, the arts, domestic or rural economy, and so forth. A few 

 genera are finally named, as examples of each order." 

 It will be at once seen, from the above extract, that Professor Lindley's 

 book is one which has long been a desideratum in the English lan- 

 guage : we may, indeed, go farther, for we are not aware of avy work 



