THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



335 



Duke of. Cambridge, among the defeated animals, had all car- 

 ried off prizes at various local shows. 



There was a very fine collection of young animals in the class 

 for bulls under two years of age. Sir Edmund Lyons, bred by 

 Mr. F. H. Fawkes, of Farnley Hall, Yorkshire, carried off the 

 first prize. This bull is considered one of the finest of his age, 

 and has carried off the first prize at every meeting at which he 

 has been shown, including Salisbury and York. The second 

 prize was awarded to Mr. Thomas Wetherell's Statesman, 



The first prize in the class for the best cow in-milk or in-calf 

 was awarded to Colonel Towneley for Victoria, already 

 mentioned, Mr. Booth's Bride Elect obtaining the second 

 prize. Queen of May, in the class for two-year-old heifers 

 in-calf, experienced a keen competition from Rose of Towne- 

 ley, belonging to Colonel Towneley — a beautiful heifer, 

 which bad carried oif the chief prizes at Craven, Salisbury, 



York, and other places. Sunflower, belonging to Mr. 

 Thomas Wetherell, of Aldborough, and Louisa, belonging 

 to Mr. John Emmerson, of Over Dinsdale, also exhibited in 

 this class, received the highest commendations from the 

 judges. In the classes for year-old heifers and heifer calves 

 under twelve months old, Mr. Richard Booth again secured 

 the principal prizes. 



The horses, especially the hunters and agricultural breedsj 

 were of a very superior quality, and the capabilities of the 

 former were practically tested by being leaped over good 

 stiff hurdles in the presence of judges. The shows of sheep, 

 pigs, and poultry were onlj^ of an ordinary description, but 

 there was a very numerous collection of agricultural imple- 

 ments. The annual dinner afterwards took place in the 

 Borough-hall, and was presided over by Mr, H. .1. Spearman, 

 of Newtourhall, near Durham. 



REVIEW. 



AN ELEMENTARY COURSE OF BOTANY. 

 By Professor Henfrey. London: 1857. 



Our readers will recollect that some months since, 

 we had occasion to notice a highly scientific work, the 

 joint production of Professors Henfrey and Griffiths, 

 entitled *' A Micrographic Dictionary." We are glad 

 to learn that it has had a rapid sale, and that a 

 second edition has already been called for — a con- 

 vincing proof of the estimation in which it is held 

 by the scientific world. We have now the pleasure of 

 again meeting one of these gentlemen in the field of 

 scientific literature, a candidate for its honours and 

 rewards; Dr. Henfrey having just sent from the press 

 a new work on botany, which we think is destined to 

 add to his fame, and prove equally successful with his 

 former publications. 



Botany, although probably, with the exception of 

 astronomy, the oldest and best understood of the phy- 

 sical sciences, has only at a comparatively recent 

 period received its present development. This is, in 

 fact, the case with all the physical sciences, the date 

 of their rise going no farther back than the middle of 

 the 17th century ; since when a constellation of lumina- 

 ries have appeared above the literary horizon, by whom 

 the laws of nature have been defined and laid open, the 

 knowledge of which has now reached the culminating 

 point, where all the physical sciences unite as in one 

 common centre. Chemistry, micrography, compara- 

 tive vegetable anatomy, have unfolded the physio- 

 logical characteristics of plants, and by separating 

 their component parts have brought us acquainted 

 with the laws of their production, the sources of their 

 sustentation, and their peculiar properties. 



Dr. Henfrey's work is professedly " An Elemen- 

 tary Course of Botany," but it contains information 

 that will be useful to the more advanced students. In 

 composing it, he has departed from the commonly 

 received methods of imparting that science. On this 

 subject he remarks : " Notwithstanding the author's 

 owu Iftbours liavo been chiefly in tho field of phjfjiolo- 



gical botany, he quite concurs with tho opinion ex- 

 pressed by the distinguished authoi-s of the Flora 

 Indicn, who believe that disservice is done to the cause 

 of botany by occupying the attention of students in the 

 first instance with the abstract parts of the science. The 

 largest class of students of botany are those who pur- 

 sue the subject as one included in the prescribed course 

 of medical education. One short course of lectures is 

 devoted to this science, and three months is commonly 

 all the time allotted the teacher for laying the founda- 

 tion and building the superstructure of a knowledge of 

 botany in the minds of his pupils, very few of whom 

 come prepared with even the most elementary ac- 

 quaintance with the science If we endeavour 



to seize the floating conceptions furnished by common 

 experience, and to fix and define them by a course of 

 exact practical observation of the more accessible cha- 

 racters of plants — showing the relations of these as they 

 occur in different divisions of the vegetable kingdom — 

 we place the student in a position which enables him to 

 proceed at once with an inquiry into the peculiarities of 

 the plants he meets with, and in this way to acquire 

 a fund of practical knowledge, which is not only 

 absolutely requisite before entering on abstract inqui- 

 ries, but is especially calculated to secure his per- 

 manent interest in the study" (Preface, p. 3, 4). 



Convinced as we are that a scientific education must 

 soon bo considered in some degree essential to the higher 

 class of agi-iculturists, and that this will necessarily 

 include the study of botany, as a science the know- 

 ledge of which is intimately connected with his pro- 

 fession, we think Dr. Henfrey's work well-timed. 

 The judgment he has exercised in departing from 

 the usual routine of teaching, and coming at once to 

 the practical part of the science, will greatly increase 

 the usefulness of tho work. The diversity of opinions 

 entertained by scientific men, in regard to the various 

 physiological phenomena of plants, would necessarily 

 perplex a student upon his initiation into the study ; 

 but which, when his knowledge of plants and their 

 classifieatlou la sKtcndod, will becotng tho isubjcct of 



