388 • New Publications. 



■Kewensis, as well as the Hortus Cantabridgensis, are considered 

 to indicate, not merely the plants of their own respective esta- 

 blishments, but those of the gardens throughout the British 

 empire. The first edition of the Hortus Kewensis (1789), un- 

 der the direction of, the elder Mr Aiton, contained 5600 species. 

 (The first edition of the Hortus Cantabridgensis, published in 

 1796, includes, however, only 3809 species.) We have then, 

 since 1789, an increase to our gardens of 8858 species. But 

 even this, brought down as it is, to the period of appearance of 

 the subject of this article, the Encyclopedia of Plants does not 

 give a full and correct idea of the acquisitions that our collec- 

 tions have recently made ; for, if we understand rightly a pas- 

 sage in the preface, the Encyclopedia of Plants embraces the 

 state of the science, as connected with Horticulture and British 

 Botany, so far down only as the year 1822, when the present 

 work was commenced. Another publication is announced as in 

 progress, under the charge of the same indefatigable editor, with 

 the title of Hortus Britannicus, and which will contain a list of 

 the names of cultivated and British plants, brought down to the 

 year 1828. We should convey a very imperfect idea of the na- 

 ture of the EncyclopcBclia of Plants, were we only to mention 

 that it contained the generic and specific characters of 16,712 

 species of plants which have grown on British soil. These cha- 

 racters are accompanied by figures of nearly 10,000 of the 

 plants engraved on wood. When we say that these are exe- 

 cuted from drawings by Mr J. D. Sowerby, expressly for the 

 work, it will be at once conceived that their execution is good. 

 It is indeed excellent ; and, considering the necessary smallness 

 of the figures, they are highly characteristic. About one-fourth 

 of every page is thus occupied with engravings ; and, though 

 many of them are so minute that, in the more difficult tribes, 

 such as the Heaths, the Labiate, the Umbellifere, the Mosses, 

 and the Fungi, there must be great difficulty in recognizing 

 the identity of the species intended to be represented ; yet, upon 

 the whole, they cannot fail to be of great utility to the student, 

 to further the cause of botany in a very eminent degree ; and, 

 by the very facilities which they affiard to the pursuit, to create 

 , a desire for a more intimate acquaintance with the species and 

 properties of the plants thus beautifully represented. Magni- 



