LITERARY NOTICES. 



277 



cations constituting, indeed, one of tbe 

 great merits of an accomplished color- 

 ist. Concerning this matter of con- 

 trast Euskin well remarks : " Every 

 hue throughout your work is altered 

 by every touch that you add in other 

 places ; so that what was warm a min- 

 ute ago becomes cold when you have 

 put a hotter color in another place." * 

 The so-called laws of contrast simply 

 point out the nature of these subtile 

 changes. The merit of a colorist is 

 not that he formally follows these laws, 

 but that consciously or unconsciously 

 he is so completely permeated with 

 them in all their varied applications, 

 that they have become a part of him- 

 self, enabling him to apply them to 

 complicated cases with a delicate cer- 

 tainty which often appears magical. 

 We are surprised that the critic who 

 assumes to know so much about artists 

 should ask the question, "Ought the 

 artist to regard the laws of contrast ? " 

 Established laws can never be disre- 

 garded with impunity by any class of 

 men ; they are self-executing. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



Gray's Botanical Text-Book. Sixth Edi- 

 tion. Part I. Structural Botany, or 

 Organography on the Basis of Morphol- 

 ogy. To which are added the Principles 

 of Taxonomy and Phytography, and a 

 Glossary of Botanical Terms. By Asa 

 Gray, LL. D., etc., Fisher Professor of 

 Natural History (Botany) in Harvard 

 University. New Yorlc : Ivison, Blalie- 

 man, Taylor & Co. 1870. Large 8vo. 

 Pp. 442. Price, $2.50. 



This is the first volume of what, in the 

 end, is to be a full botanical course of 

 study. Part II., by Professor Goodale, will 

 treat of physiological botany. Part III., 

 by Professor Ilarlow, will be an introduc- 

 tion to cryptGgamic botany; and Part IV., 

 which Professor Gray hopes to accomplish 

 himself, will contain a sketch of the natural 

 orders of phajnogamous plants, and of their 



* " Elements of Drawing," p. 196. 



special morphology, classification, distribu- 

 tion, products, etc. 



The title-page of this important install- 

 ment of the sixth edition will be made more 

 intelligible to the general reader by the 

 following extract from its introduction : 

 ^'■Structural botany comprehends all inqui- 

 ries into the parts and the organic compo- 

 sition of vegetables. This is termed organ- 

 ography Yih^n it considers the organs or ob- 

 vious parts of which plants are made up, 

 and morphology when the study proceeds 

 on the idea of type." By taxonomy is meant 

 "the principles of classification," and by 

 phytography " the rules and methods of de- 

 scribing plants." Ill the opening paragraph 

 of Chapter I. it is further explained that 

 morphology, the doctrine of forms, as the 

 name denotes, is used in natural history in 

 nearly the same sense as the older term 

 comparative anatomy. If it were concerned 

 merely with the description and classifica- 

 tion of shapes and modifications, it would 

 amount to little more than glossology and 

 organography. But it deals with these from 

 a peculiar point of view, and under the idea 

 i of unity of plan or type. 



The first edition of Gray's " Text-Book 

 of Botany " was published in 1842, in one 

 moderate-sized octavo volume. The four 

 subsequent editions were each a little en- 

 larged from its predecessor ; but, until now, 

 one volume has sufficed for tbe treatment 

 of the entire field of botanical science. 

 When it appeared, botany was not gener- 

 ally studied in our schools. The analysis 

 of flowers by the Linnfean system was fash- 

 ionable in girls' seminaries, where there was 

 a pretense of studying plants themselves; 

 but it resulted in the merest pedantry. The 

 system of classification was artificial ; it did 

 not appeal to the rational faculties, as did 

 natural philosophy and chemistry; and sen- 

 sible boys and girls repudiated the subject. 

 To give it rank, it had to be placed on a 

 new basis and Gray's " Text-Book " accom- 

 plished this by the masterly way in which 

 he presented the life-history of plants. The 

 structure and development of colls was 

 clearly set forth, the natural system of 

 classification was adopted, and the study 

 became both rational and attractive. 



But other changes besides increase of 

 size have taken place in this text-book. In 



