LE MAOUX'S BOTA.W. 245 



why it appears no other thing to uie than a foul and pestilent congrega- 

 tion of vapors V 



On the other hand where the feelings have from any reason more 

 than their ordinary tone, objects afford delight which in another state 

 would convey no pleasure. In the exulting spring of spirits experienced 

 after leaving the room where we have been long confined by sickness, 

 the most trifling thing which ordinarily would not detain the eye for a 

 moment, now has elegance and grace. 



*' The meanest floweret of the vale, 



The simplest note that swells the gale, 



The common sun, the air, the skies, 



To him are opening Paradise." — Grey. f 



LE MAOUT S BOTANY. 

 Leijons de Botanique par Dr. Le Maout. 2 vols. Paris. 



I am sure I shall receive the thanks of those readers of the Record 

 and Journal who are about to devote themselves to the study of Botany, 

 and even of those who have already pursued it, (if the work has not 

 fallen under their notice) by calling their attention to the charming book 

 of Dr. Le Maout. It is an elementary work on Botany divested of all 

 that dryness and stiffness hitherto supposed to be inseparable from works 

 of this class. To read an elementary book on science and particularly 

 on Botany, not only without labor but with positive pleasure, sounds 

 like a paradox, and so I should ever have considered it had not the meri- 

 torious work under notice fallen into my hands. You might be induced 

 to suppose from these remarks that Dr. Le Maout had written one of 

 those superficial and fanciful books, one of those sickly and mawkish ro- 

 mances of science, unfortunately too common at the present day; but not 

 so — his work teaches the profouiidcst doctrines of this beautiful science 

 with all those recent and wonderful developments based upon the inge- 

 nious observations of the celebrated Goethe, which so justly place Bo- 

 tany in the rank of the exact sciences. All those most intricate and cu- 

 rious adaptations of Nature, the development of which casts such a 

 charm over modern Botany, are treated by the author with a simplicity, 

 perspicuity and elegance that cannot fail to fascinate his readers. As a 

 specimen of the pleasant manner in which the subject is treated, the fol- 

 lowing extract was ti-anslated by a lady who has shared my delight in 

 the book : 



••' About the middle of the last century, Bernard Jussicu, Professor of 

 Botany, on examining the trees confided to his care in the Garden of 



