234 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [May 



there is a peculiar fitness in bringing such an exposition before 

 the members of this Royal Institution, which has been for so 

 many years devoted to the study of pure science, and whose glory 

 it is, through the illustrious men who have filled, and those who 

 now fill, its professorial chairs, to have contributed more than any 

 other school in the world to the progress of modern chemistry and 

 physics. 



REVIEW. 



" Manual of the Botany of the Northern United 



States." 



By Asa Gray, Fisher Professor of Natural History in 

 Harvard University. New York, 1867. 



A fifth edition of this very useful manual has been recently 

 issued. The author has, to a great extent, re- written the work, 

 and, in the elaboration of some parts, has received active co-opera- 

 tion from some other American botanists, prominent among whom 

 are Dr. George Engelmann and Prof. D. C. Eaton. Important 

 changes in the arrangement of some of the orders and genera have 

 been embodied in this edition ; the geographical range of very 

 many species has been extended ; naturalized as well as indigenous 

 plants — some familiar as Canadian — not previously known to 

 occur within the Northern United States (as limited by the author) 

 have been recently discovered and are now included ; and to the 

 work have been added not a few new species. 



In the present edition there are many points of considerable 

 interest to Canadian botanists. 



Among the orders several noticeable changes occur. The 

 Cabombeae are treated by the author as constituting a sub-order 

 of Nymphasaceae, and the Linmantheas, Balsamineoa and 

 Oxalideae as sub-orders of Geraniaceae. This comprehensive view 

 of Geraniaceae is that originally entertained by Jussieu, the 

 founder of the order, but regarding which difference of opinion 

 has existed among later botanists. The irregular, unsymetrical 

 flowers, the usually fewer sepals, petals, and stamens, the spur or 

 sac on the posterior sepal, the simple leaves, as well as other dis- 

 tinguishing characters of the Balsams, seem to entitle, at least, 



