CHAP. V. LITERATURE. 189 
In France, the first really important work on trees,in modern times, is the 
Traité des Arbres et Arbustes, by Du Hamel du Monceau, which was published 
in Paris, in two volumes 4to,in 1755. In this work the nomenclature of 
Tournefort is followed, but the names of Linnzus are also given; it is illus- 
trated with numerous figures, partly taken, as the author informs us, from the 
blocks which were used in the Commentaries of Mathiolus; and partly engraved 
on purpose for the work. The first volume contains 368 pages and 275 
engravings, and the second 387 pages and 199 engravings. The original 
edition is not very common, and, when met with in London, sells at from 
thirty to forty shillings. A new edition of this work was commenced in the 
year 1800, and it was completed in seven volumes folio in 1819. The letter- 
press of these volumes was prepared by Mirbel, Loiseleur Deslongchamps, 
and other botanists ; and the drawings were by Redouté, Bessa, &c. The pub- 
lished price of a royal folio copy was 124/. 10s., and of a common copy nearly 
100/. The species are arranged according to the Linnzan system ; and the 
number of engravings of trees and shrubs, including some engravings of fruits, 
amounts to 498. Both engravings and descriptions are of very unequal merit, 
and many of the former (at least in our copy, which is a large paper one) are 
altogether unworthy of the consequence attempted to be given to the work by 
large type, large paper, and other characteristics of the mode, now gone by 
both in France and England, of publishing for the few. Asa proof of the 
truth of what we assert, large paper copies may now be purchased in London 
for between 30/. and 40/., and small paper copies for twenty guineas. 
In 1809, while the new edition of Du Hamel was slowly publishing in parts, 
the Histoire des Arbres et Arbrisseaux, by M. Desfontaines, appeared in two 
volumes 8vo, and is still a work of repute. In 1824, Yraité des Arbhres 
Forestiéres, ou Histoire et Description des Arbres Indigénes, naturalisés, dont le tige 
a de trente a cent vingt pieds d’élévation, &c., par M. Jaune St. Hilaire et M. 
Thouin, appeared in one volume 4to, with coloured plates, price 10/. The 
plates are badly executed, and the work, with the exception of the part written 
by Thouin, is of a very inferior description, 
André Michaux, a notice of whose life has been given, p. 140., published 
Histoire des Chénes de ? Amérique, in one volume folio, in 1801; and his son, 
F. A. Michaux, published Histoire des Arbres Forestiéres de ? Amérique Septen- 
trionale, in three volumes, large 8vo, in 1812. Of this work there is an Eng- 
lish translation entitled the American Sylva, which was published in Paris, in 
1817, at nine guineas plain, or twelve guineas coloured. F. A. Michaux’s 
work contains 156 plates, including figures of all the oaks described in the 
Histoire des Chénes, and is an excellent work, which still maintains its price 
both in Paris and London. We ought not to pass unnoticed Le Botaniste 
Cultivateur of Du Mont de Courset, in seven volumes 8yo, which was com- 
pleted in 1814, and which, though it contains herbaceous and house plants, as well 
as ligneous hardy plants, is yet more complete in its descriptions of the latter 
than any other work, except Du Hamel’s. There is no French work which 
brings down the description and history of trees and shrubs to the present time ; 
but, if we were asked what works we would recommend, as making the nearest 
approach to this, we should say, Le Botaniste Cultivateur ; Les Annales de 
Fromont ; Le Bon Jardinier, the edition of which work for the current year con- 
tains notices of all the plants newly introduced ; and, above all, the excellent 
Prodromus of De Candolle, now in course of publication, and of which four 
volumes 8vo, price 5/., have already appeared. 
In Holland, the only work exclusively devoted to trees and shrubs which, we 
have heard of, is by Krause, and the title is, Afoee/dingen der Fraaiste, Meest- 
witheemsche Boomen en Heesters,&c. It appeared at Amsterdam in 1802, in 
one thick royal 4to volume, the price of which in London is 102. The 
plates in our copy are executed in a very superior manner, and they are 
coloured with much more care than those of either Willdenow, Schmidt, or 
Du Hamel. Some of the German works describing the different kinds of 
wood were published at Amsterdam, as well as at Leipzic; particularly that 
