372 jRevieios, atid Notices respecting New Books. 



doubt. This is an advantage which belongs to no previous work, and 

 must greatly enhance the usefulness of The Botanist. The plates, 

 both in the matter of engraving and colouring, sj.eak for themselves : 

 they are "beautiful exceedingly !" The selection and treatment of 

 the subjects figured reflect credit upon the conductor and his assis- 

 tants, and if they avail themselves in the future numbers as judiciously 

 of the varied resources at their command, the result will be the p ro 

 duction of a volume, or, as we hope, many volumes, calculated to 

 delight and instruct all who may open them, of whatever age or 

 sex. * * * 



M. Mirbel's Report on a Memoir of M. Gaudichaud, relative to the 

 Development and Groivth of the Stems, Leaves, and other Organs 

 of Plants, read in the Academy of Sciences at the sitting of the 2lst 

 December 1835.* 



When we have collected a great number of facts, when we 

 have viewed them on every side, and have compared them with 

 one anotiier, observing with care their resemblances and differences, 

 we feel ourselves stimulated by the desire to seek out the laws of 

 their existence, to generalize those which are susceptible of it, and 

 to form them into a theory. Without doubt prudence would often 

 lead us to keep to the simple exposition of facts, but we cannot 

 deny that it is very useful for science, that those who have disco- 

 vered them should apply themselves to show us their connexion and 

 dependence. Exact observations are never slow in obtaining the 

 assent of ail; theories, on the contrary, are subject to be for a long 

 time contested. In this conflict of different opinions, the opposing 

 parties bring forward all the known facts, put them to the test of a 

 more rigorous examination, and discover others which had escaped 

 preceding researches. Now, numerous and well-observed facts are 

 what essentially constitute the unchangeable foundations of science. 

 Thus, whatever be the issue of the struggle, there is a victory in 

 favour of the human mind, and both the victors and the van- 

 quislied have often equal claims to public esteem. 



These reflections are suggested to us by the perusal of the work 

 which M . Gaudichaud has addressed to the Academy, — a work which, 

 on the one part, is composed of a multitude of new facts, of acute 

 observations, and inductions as just as they are evident ; and, on the 

 other, presents a general theory which rests upon that of Du Petit- 

 Thouars, and considerably enlarges its basis. The material facts are 

 certain, the theory vvhich generalizes and professes to explain them, 

 is still in doubt. De la Hire conceived it without supporting it by 

 proofs : Du Petit-Thouars, by bringing together all the observa- 

 tions that .seemed to him calculated to support it, gave it a scientific 

 existence; Agardh applied himself to reconcile it with the re- 



* From the Annates des Sciences Natnrelles, tome v. p. 24. — The prize 

 for experimental physiology founded by M. Montyon for the year 1835 was 

 divided between this memoir and that of M. Poiseuille upon the causes of 

 the motion of the blood in the capillary vessels. 



