FOREIGN NOTICES. 



141 



that portico, he " winks at," to be sure ; but 

 it is with a very knowing wink, with one eye 

 only ! 



With a few sensible suggestions, he relieves 

 the country greenhorn from the embarrassing 

 idea that he is obliged, in order to be respect- 

 able, to furnish his house like the mansion of 

 his city friend, and puts our wives in excellent 

 spirits, by showing them drawings of furni- 

 ture appropriate for their best apartments, at 

 a moderate cost. Then he makes us perceive 

 how much more graceful and homelike our 

 houses will seem, ornamented with a few pic- 

 tures, or fine engravings, or pieces of statuary, 

 instead of costly mirrors and gilded cornices, 

 and giving us, in passing, a glimpse of its pro- 

 per surroundings of lawns, spotted, here and 

 there, with groups of trees and shrubbery, 

 leaves us with the consoling impression that 

 our means, which were sadly deficient for the 

 prevailing mode, arc ample for the gratifica- 

 tion of true taste. 



And so, one soon gets on a very agreoablc 

 intimacy with our author. He is not a man 

 to quarrel with, for he lays down no inflexi- 

 ble rules. True, he gives you the best plans 

 for all sorts of convenient buildings ; but then 

 he modestly suggests that your peculiar wants 

 may require modifications, which you are ex- 



pected to make, and very likely makes you 

 forget that you are under any obligations 

 whatever, to him. And in matters of taste, 

 he is usually so obviously correct, that you 

 are half inclined to believe that the same ideas 

 he suggests would have occurred to you, 

 without his assistance. In short, the present 

 volume answers precisely the wants of the 

 times. 



The elegant introductory essay upon the 

 Beautiful, the True and the Useful in Arc-hi- 

 tec-ture, may be commended to the attention 

 of refined and cultivated niind-^, for its litjra- 

 ry merit alone, had it no other; while the 

 " word fitly spoken," upon the various points 

 of art, science, taste, as well as domestic eco- 

 nomy, involved in its sul)ject, renders tin 

 work invaluable to all engaged in building. 

 Mr. Downing is, emphatically, as a friend of 

 ours says, to express his highest approbatioi 

 of another, one of us — a man to whom hi.- 

 countrymen owe nmch. and to whom they feel 

 happy to acknowledge their obligations. 



His writings should lie read, not only by 

 all who arc building, but by all wlio live in 

 hciuses. ]\Iay he be long sjiared to "sit uniler 

 his own vine and fig tree, with none to molest 

 him or make him afraid." 



N. II. 



Improvement in Botanical Nomenclature. 

 — When we drew attention, a few weeks since, to 

 ihe state of botanical nomenclature, we sufTgcsted 

 that our readers should favor us with their opi- 

 nions upon the propriety of making some changes 

 in it. We did so, not from entertaining the least 

 doubt as to what the right course is, but for the 

 sake of eliciting such expressions of opinion as 

 would put us in possession of the views of those 

 who are alone interested in the question. So far 

 as mere technical science is concerned, the lan- 

 guage of botany is good enough; for botanists un- 

 derstand it. The real question at issue is, whe- 

 ther it is adapted to familiar use? and, if not, 

 whether it cannot be so adapted without any violent 

 interference with usage or scientific convenience? 



Very few men are or can be professed botanists ; 

 multitudes wish for such an acquaintance with 

 botany as an important and highly interesting 

 branch of science demands of the well informed: 

 and there is a very large class of persons who.si 

 pursuits compel them to talk in the language pe- 

 culiar to it. But this lanfjuage is entirely foreigi- 

 to English ears and English taste — uncouth, in 

 elegant, and even barbarous. To remedy thi.s. 

 and to place it in such a condition that it may b> 

 an object of attraction to the educated multitude 

 as well as to a few studious philosophers, has fo 

 many 3'ears been the aim of ourselves and others 

 Nor has our motive been even limited thus nai 

 rowly; on the contrary, we believe that it ani 

 other branches of natural history may be made :. 



