472 



GRAY'S MANUAL OF BOTANY. 



sleeping apartments. This would enable 

 a family, consisting of a number of per- 

 sons, to live comfortably in a house of this 

 size. 



In portions of the country where timber 

 is abundant, this cottage may be built at a 

 cost of from $400 to $600. In this neigh- 

 borhood, it is estimated to cost $750. 



REVIEWS. 



A Manual of the Botany of the Northern 

 Stat hS,/ro 7/1 New-England to Wisconsin, and 

 south to Ohio and Pennsylvania, inclusive, ar- 

 ranged according to the Natural System ; with an 

 introduction, containing a reduction of the gene- 

 ra to the Linncean artificial classes and orders, 

 outlines of the elements of botany, a glossary, 

 etc.; by Asa Gray, M. D., Prol'essor of Natural 

 History in Harvard University. 12mo, 710 pa- 

 ges. Boston and Cambridge : James Monroe & 

 Co.. 1848. ($2 : to schools and academies $1.50.) 

 There are many persons who look upon 

 botany as a kind of mysterious puzzle, to 

 render trees and plants— things simple and 

 beautiful in themselves — strange, complex, 

 and " scientific." Consequently, they have 

 a horror of it ; and they live a whole life- 

 time, with the greatest possible desire to 

 know something of that wide realm of 

 beauty and interest — the vegetable king- 

 dom,— and die almost entirely ignorant 



of it. 



Their prejudice is one as reasonable as 



that of a wayward child, who would fore- 

 go all the pleasure and profit of knowledge 

 because of the, to him, unmeaning drudge- 

 ry of acquiring the alphabet. For, after 

 all, the forbidding part of botany is but the 

 necessary alphabet, which science has con- 

 trived to enable men intelligibly to classi- 

 fy, arrange, and methodise a part of na- 

 ture's works, in order that we may read 

 and understand her better; just as the al- 

 phabet, and the rudimentary lessons which 

 follow it, are only the necessary stepping- 

 stones to enable us to stand high enough to 

 hold converse with the otherwise sealed 

 domain of written thoughts. 



And is it not worth a few days labor, — 

 this science, which enables us to under- 

 stand not only the history, the names, the 

 associations, and the virtues of all plants, 

 but also the curious relations, the admira- 

 ble laws which govern their structure, and 

 the wonderful part which they bear in the 

 economy of the universe ? Is it not worth 

 while to become familiar with a study 

 which, wherever our steps may lead us, 

 from high, cold mountain tops, crusted over 

 with only mosses and lichens, to deep, warm 

 tropical valleys, where the luxuriance of ve- 

 getable forms almost bewilder the senses, 

 still furnishes us with new subjects for con- 

 sideration ; a study that often makes a field- 

 path, or a ramble by the way-side, that is 

 dull and mean in the eyes of the unlearned, 

 rich in interest and beauty to him Avho finds 

 a botanical gem under his feet, that fills 

 his soul with delight. Truly has it been 

 said, that more than half the world is stone- 

 blind. Ennui consumes them, and life is 

 dull and vapid ! They have no more no- 

 tion of the wealth of interest that covers 

 and embroiders this dull earth which they 

 despise, than they have of the true motions 

 of the binary stars ! 



Seriously, there is no thinking person 

 whose home is in the country, and who 

 loves nature, — much to be pitied are those 

 who live in the country and not love her, — 

 who would not find a great and unfailing 

 resource in this beautiful science. The 

 difference between knowing plants and trees 

 as a naturalist knows them, or as they are 



