Dr. Hooker on American Botany. 119 



Systematic Arrangement and Description of the Plants of 

 North America, by Fk. Pursh, appeared in London in the 

 year 1S13, with 24 well-executed plates of new species, in 

 2 vols. 8vo. The specific characters are in Latin, the obser- 

 vations in English. 



The arrangement is that of the sexual system ; but the au- 

 thor has made considerable deviations from the generally re- 

 ceived arrangement of the Linnsean school. The classes Do- 

 decandria and Polyadelphia are omitted, as well as Monaccia, 

 Dicecia and Polygamic/, and their genera are referred toother 

 classes, some according to the number of stamens, others to 

 his 19th class, which is called Declinia, and which contains 

 Euphorbiacca;, Amentacccc, and Conifercc ,• thus bringing in- 

 to his arrangement an union of a natural and artificial sys- 

 tem, which has not been adopted by others. 



Michaux's work included the whole of the class Cryptoga- 

 mia ; but this, though all perhaps that was then known, con- 

 tained so scanty a list as scarcely to deserve notice. Mr. 

 Pursh professes to go no farther than the order Filices of the 

 class Cryptogamia. 



Sometime after the publication of his Flora, the author 

 again visited America, but with a view of confining his re- 

 searches to a part which had been very little explored, name- 

 ly Canada. There he died in 1820. His herbarium of that 

 country, which was considerable, has been purchased by Mr. 

 Lambert, who, we believe, is also the possessor of that far 

 more extensive and valuable one which Pursh had made in 

 his former travels in the United States. 



In the year 1814, there appeared in America, printed at 

 Boston, the Florula Bostoniensis, or a Collection of Plants 

 of Boston and its environs, by Jacob Bigelow, M.D. in 1 

 vol. 8vo. It is in English, and strictly arranged according to 

 the Linnaean system. It was destined principally for the use 

 of the students in Botany ; and the plants described therein 

 were all collected during two seasons, in the immediate vici- 

 nity of Boston, or within a circuit of from five fo ten miles ; 

 and although very few new species are added, the number of 

 individuals is very considerable for so limited a space.* Dur- 



• At the moment of our sending these notices to the press, we have receiv- 

 ed from its esteemed author, \vho is a Professor in Harvard College, New 



i 



