REVIEWS. 63 



veller through the history of his difficulties, and we feel that to give 

 any extract from his most amusing record of them would be doing a posi- 

 tive injustice to their " admirable " relator, who appears to be gifted with 

 a rare union of all that is required to be found in the explorer of almost 

 unknown regions. We venture to predict that Hooker's Journal will long 

 be sought for by the Himalayan tourist as the book on that region ; one 

 in which the desultory reader will find ample stores of information 

 pleasingly narrated, and in which the studious inquirer will find the most 

 important questions that may, or, indeed, could be brought under his 

 notice, treated of with all the vigour of a master mind. 



Palm Trees of the Amazon, and their Uses. By Alfred E. Wallace. 

 With forty-eight plates. London : John Van Voorst. F.cap 8vo., pp. 

 130. Price 10s. 6d. 1853. 



In this pleasing little volume we have, from the pen of an accomplished 

 naturalist, an account of the Palm Trees of the Amazon Valley. Its 

 author collected the materials during a residence of four years in the valley 

 of that river, which were most labouriously spent in acquiring an intimate 

 knowledge of its natural history. On his return to Europe with a large 

 collection which he had made during his residence there, the vessel in 

 which he was a passenger took fire, and went down, leaving him to the 

 mercy of the waves. He was picked up by the " Jordeson" 200 miles 

 from land, and has lived to record in this, and another work of great power 

 and interest, the record of his observations and discoveries. The present 

 work is well got up, and the plates, though uncoloured, are very charac- 

 teristic of the forms of vegetable life which they represent, and will prove 

 acceptable to many who have not the opportunity of either seeing or pro- 

 curing the splendid works of Dr. Martius on the Palm Tribe. 



