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has yet seen, — we speak it without any exception, — is the 

 Flora Germanica of Professor Schrader of Gbttingen, the 

 first volume of which, comprising the first three classes 

 of the sexual system, was published in 1806. The cor- 

 rect distinctions, well-digested synonyms, and complete 

 descriptions of this work, are altogether unrivalled. If 

 the whole should be equally well executed, for which the 

 longest life would be scarcely sufficient, it must ever be 

 the standard book of European botany. Its descrip- 

 tions of grasses are worthy to accompany the exquisite 

 engravings of the same tribe from the hand of Leers, 

 published at Herborn in 1775, which excel every other 

 botanical representation that we have examined. They 

 will bear, and indeed they require, the application of a 

 magnifying-glass, like the plants themselves. The pur- 

 chaser of this little volume must however beware of the 

 second edition, whose plates are good for little or nothing. 

 The name of Schrader has long: been distinguished in 

 Cryptogamic Botany. In this pursuit, the industrious 

 and accurate botanists of Germany, shut out from exten- 

 sive opportunities of studying exotic plants, have had 

 full scope for their zeal and abilities. In this field the 

 Leipsic school has distinguished itself. Here the great 

 Schreber first began his career with some of the most 

 perfect, cryptogamic works, especially on the minute ge- 

 nus Phascum. Here the same author published his ex- 

 cellent Flora Lipsiensis, his laborious practical work on 

 Grasses, and finally his improved edition of the Genera 

 Plantarum of his friend Linnseus. But, above all, Leip- 

 sic is famous for being the residence of Hedwig, whose 

 discoveries, relative to the fructification and generic cha- 

 racters of Mosses, form an aera in botanic science. Under 

 the hands of such an observer, that elegant tribe dis- 

 plays itself with a degree of beauty, variety, and singu- 

 larity, which vies with the most admired herbs and flow- 

 el's, and confirms the Linnaean doctrine of impregnation, 

 which the more obvious organs of the latter had originally 



