NOTICE OF BOTANICAL PUBLICATIONS. 161 
defect, which even the most carefully-drawn characters can- 
not always avoid, owing to the inadequacy of language to 
find terms sufficiently precise for the designation of the innu- 
merable forms which the vegetable kingdom presents, and ` 
especially for distinguishing the varying forms which the 
same plant, when produced under circumstances tending to 
increase or diminish its luxuriance, is apt to exhibit. 
“ The insufficiency of language alone, to convey just ideas 
of the forms of natural objects, has led naturalists, ever since 
the invention of engraving, to have recourse to pictorial deli- 
neation, to assist the mind through the medium of the senses, 
and, prior to the time of Linnzus, not without good cause, 
since nothing could be more vague than the language then 
employed in description. Thus the number of figures pub- 
lished by the older writers, is truly astonishing. The pre- 
cision of modern scientific language, the generalization of 
the innumerable objects of natural history into classes, orders, 
tribes, and families, and the accuracy and minute details 
Which the representations of recent artists present, have 
fortunately all combined to diminish the necessity for the in- 
numerable figures of the older naturalists, the latter cause 
having increased their cost so greatly, as materially to dimin- 
ish their production even to the extent required for the eluci- 
dation of the rapid advances natural history is now making. 
“ The vegetable treasures of India have undoubtedly been 
highly honoured by the magnificence of the works dedicated 
to their illustration, as those of Rheede, Roxburgh, and 
Wallich, amply testify; but, unhappily for science, the first 
of these is very rare, and they are all so costly, that few can 
afford to purchase them, while, from their size, they can only 
be conveniently consulted in the library. In spite, however, 
of these drawbacks to their more general use, they have been 
~ Of immense service to Indian Botany, and. are alike credit- 
_ able to their authors and to the countries which produced 
. them, while the value of the last is vastly enhanced, by several 
_ Very admirable memoirs on different Natural Orders by some 
_ €f the most distinguished living botanists. cup ded. 
> "Vol IL-—No. 11. Y aa i 
LI 
