wood's BOTANt. 95 



in utt,er and oblivious ruin." At length the sun reappears, and gradual- 

 ly gaining strength, arrests the farther progress of the frost. As he as- 

 cends farther and farther up the horizon, daily his power is greatly in- 

 creased, until the thawing of the ice and snow gives evidence that a mild- 

 er influence is predominating. At length the ice-bound ocean .breaks 

 his fetters and asserts his natural riglits. Fields of ice begin to float, and, 

 tost on his bosom, with thundering crash are driven against each other. 

 The same cause, which produced the fogs of the autumn, now covers 

 land and sea again. The lower stratum of the air touching the colder 

 body of water becomes chilled and thence deposits moisture. Hence 

 the atmosphere of Siberia is characterized by being charged vviih moist- 

 ure. During the greater part of the year, the more northern latitudes are 

 covered with a dense fog, and a clear sky appears only for a short time 

 during the intense cold of mid-winter. At this season the cold as meas- 

 ured b}^ Mr. Wrangell in January was — 65°. Then breathing was diffi- 

 cult, and the immense herds of rein-deer retired to the thickest forests, 

 and, led by instinct, stood motionless as if deprived of life. 



Wood^s Botany. Crocker & Brewster, Boston, 1845. 



No apology need be offered for introducing, at this time, a notice of 

 this work. In a few weeks the earth will be released from her icy fet- 

 ters, and fragrant flowery Spring will be at the door. Many of our young 

 friends will then be enticed abroad to learn the names, characters, and 

 the relations, afhnitiesand almost endless diversities of the 100,000 spe- 

 cies of plants, which clothe the valleys and hill-tops, the plains and 

 mountain sides, and which, in their short-lived beauty, laugh at the glo- 

 ry of man. The members of the Linnacan Association can surely not 

 be indifferent to the claims of a science, which is so largely indebted to 

 him whose name they have assumed, and which claimed from him so 

 much of his time and interest. They, together with many others of 

 our young friends elsewhere, will therefore no doubt be anxious to be 

 prepared to prosecute the study of Botany with vigor, as the Spring opens, 

 and to be furnished with the proper helps to do so successfully. Learn- 

 ers, in this branch of science, lose the most favor-able time for beginning, 

 if they defer it to the middle of summer, and, after the novelty has in a 

 measure worn off, they soon become perplexed and discouraged, if they 

 are not provided with a good manual. 



The work before us is, in our opinion, just such a one as the wants 

 and circumstances of students in Academies and Colleges demand. — 

 Within the last few years there has not been a lack of books called Man- 



