REVIEW. 



The Tea plant, new varieties of Cotton, and Sugar-Cane, the Boxwood-tree, 



the European Sweet Chestnut, several varieties of Oaks, as the Edible, the Kermcs, 

 the Gall-Nut, with the Date and Tamarind-trees, the Frankincense, or Olibanura- 

 tree, the true Balsam of Gilead {Amyris Gileadensis), Gum Arabic, Mastic, Quassia, 

 Senna, Rhatany, and Bunya-Bunya, or Araucaria Bidwillii, are all sug'gested as 

 possible to introduce, every introduction rendering us more independent of other 

 countries. Let all who have opportunities give sonje attention to these matters ; 

 it will be a pretty addition to the pursuits of the country gentleman, attended 

 with the consciousness of doing something in his day and generation. 



The book treats of insects, fertilizers, and a thousand things of interest to the 

 farmer and gardener. The mechanical volumes we must leave to other pens. 



Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States. Second Edition. By Asa 

 Gray. Neio York: Putnam. 



As horticulturists, we may be proud of the want which has called for a new 

 edition of this well-known work. The author, we need scarcely remark, stands 

 at the head of the science as an authority, and, in the getting-up of our cata- 

 logues and lists of plants and trees, we should be glad to see this work generally 

 recognized as the standard of nomenclature. At present, we suffer much from 

 a confusion of names. In a catalogue now before us, emanating from a house 

 we should have supposed knew better, we find "Zizyphus volubilis, fifty cents," 

 and, in another page of the same, " Berchemia volubilis, seventy-five cents" — both 

 names having been given, by different botanists, to the same plant. A work like 

 this under review, has become essential to every nurseryman who would keep pace 

 with the high character his business is now attaining, not only for the detection 

 and avoidance of errors like that alluded to in our friend's catalogue, but also to 

 enable him to obtain the information of the plants and trees of his own country, 

 every nurseryman of any pretension ought to possess. 



Looking at the work horticulturally, we are disposed to join in with those 

 botanists whom the author tells us " may find some reason to complain of the 

 general omission of synonyms;" but, in reality, the work is not so very deficient in 

 this respect. For instance, in describing Magnolia umbrella, he tells us it is the 

 same as M. tripetela, and M. Frazeri the same as M. auriculata. Changes similar 

 to these are very common throughout the work, and it will take a great deal of 

 "nerve" to make our catalogues correspond with them, as the rejected names are 

 so widely diffused ; but, as these names are generally acquiesced in by botanists 

 as the more correct designations, it will be easier to correct the errors the loose 

 descriptions that Pursh, Michaux, and Rafinesque, have bequeathed to us now, 

 than at any future time. 



In looking carefully through the volume, and comparing the list of the most 

 beautiful of our native trees and plants with our nurserymen's catalogues, we are 

 disposed to hold a higher opinion of our cultivators' tastes in the matter of 

 "natives" than we think is generally assumed. Though there are certainly some 

 very fine things yet to be brought under cultivation, there is not a greater number 

 of neglected beauties in proportion to the extent of our flora, than could be found 

 in similar comparison witli a foreign catalogue and the flora of its proprietor's 

 country. We are pleased to note this, especially as we know that the taste for 

 our own beautiful trees is daily increasing. 



With regard to the manner in which the author has completed his task, it 

 scarcely becomes us to pass an opinion. To our mind, however, some of th 

 kinds he has thrown together as being specifically identical, or mere varietie 



