Dr. Hooker on American Botany. 125 



has appeared in that country ; the Flora of the Middle and 

 Northern Sections of the United States, by Dr. Torrey. A 

 frequent correspondence, and a mutual interchange of bo- 

 tanical specimens, have made us acquainted with the zeal 

 and acquirements of this gentleman ; both of which are now 

 assiduously engaged in the preparation of his work, the con- 

 tinuation of which we anxiously expect. No. I. extends as 

 far as, but not to the conclusion of, the Class Triandria, and 

 Order Digynia ; for here likewise the arrangement is that of 

 Linnaeus. The whole is in English. The synonyms are 

 sufficiently copious, and the descriptive part contains much 

 useful criticism and observation. We know, too, that Dr. 

 Torrey has made a most ample collection of the cryptogamic 

 plants of the United States ; that he is well acquainted with 

 the species and their characters ; and we may therefore con- 

 fidently hope that this department of botany will now find a 

 place in the Floras of North America. 



Our attention has hitherto been almost exclusively turned 

 to the progress of botany in the United States. There is 

 still a vast extent of highly interesting country to the north- 

 ward, from the 45th parallel of lat. to 74, including 29 de- 

 grees , and to the westward, which, as being for the most 

 part either in the acknowledged possession of the British 

 government, or of the Hudson's Bay Company, or what has 

 been explored by British enterprise, we shall denominate the 

 British possessions in North America. 



Small, indeed, compared to the extent of the country, is 

 the amount of what has been published exclusively on the 

 plants of these regions. We may, we believe, sum up the 

 whole in the mention of the Botanical Appendix to Captain 

 Franklin's Narrative, and those to the various recent Arctic 

 Voyages of Discovery, among which the observations of our 

 countryman, Brown, have given an additional interest to the 

 subject, besides a small paper upon some new and rare Ca- 

 nadian plants, gathered by Mr. Goldie during an excursion 

 of some extent in that country, which was printed in the 

 Edinburgh Philosophical Journal. Unless we indeed extend 

 our remarks to Greenland, of which country a list of the 

 plants has been printed by Sir Charles Giesecke, in the 

 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, art. Greenland, and other 



