44 NEW PUBLICATIONS. 



lowed by the organic proximate principles which nre noticed at con- 

 siderable length. The non-volatile part or ingredients of the ash of 

 plants are then examined, their combinations, proportions, and functions 

 in plant-economy. Under the second head the different organs and 

 their parts are shortly described, and their offices explained. In the 

 third part are accounts of germination, nntrilion, the movements of the 

 sap, and the reproductive processes, the last given very briefly. The 

 book concludes with an Appendix, consisting of elaborate tables of 

 analysis. 



The value of this treatise lies especially in the clearness of its style, 

 and in being brought well up lo the time. In the chemical portion, 

 for instance — where English text-books of Botany are, without excep- 

 tion, not only defective from the neglect of recent researches, but 

 often positively misleading — great care has been taken to express 

 with accuracy and clearness the modern views of the nature and reac- 

 tions, real composition and relationships of substances ; the names and 

 formulae adopted are those of lloscoe's ' Lessons in Elementary Che- 

 mistry.' Professor Johnson seems to have taken especial care in get- 

 ting together records of analyses and experiments from the German 

 Agricultural Journals and Eeports, and his English editors have well 

 seconded his endeavours. 



In the more specially botanical part of the book, we are glad to see 

 considerable alterations from the original treatise ; the errors into which 

 Professor Johnson had fallen have been corrected, and much new matter 

 has been added, e.ff. Darwin's researches on climbing plants, Spencer's 

 physical views of the cause of sap-movements and wood-formation, and 

 chapters on reproduction and on the death of the plant. In one case, 

 howevei', we notice an alteration for the worse : Professor Johnson, in 

 quoting Unger's experiments with coloured vegetable fluids and white 

 hyacinths, rightly states (p. 341) that Unger found the red fluid passed 

 entirely up the wood-cells, the spiral vessels remaining empty ; whilst 

 the English editors adduce (p. 323) Unger's experiments to support 

 Herbert Spencer's view that nutrient fluids ascend mainly by the ves- 

 sels. There is also some laxity in the use of the term " vascular 

 tissue" in several parts of the book. 



Sixty-five excellent original woodcuts illustrate the text, which is 

 pririted on toned paper; a running marginal abstract down each page 

 somewhat supplies the place of a quite insufficient index. 



