162 Analysis of Scientific Boohs and Memoirs. 



of the English Botany could, to no person, with so much propriety, have 

 been confided as to Sir James Smith. It was commenced by him in 1790, 

 with the figures, as is well known, drawn and engraved by Sowerby ; and 

 the work extended to thirty-six volumes, with 2592 excellent plates. 

 This publication may safely be pronounced unique of its kind, and rarely 

 will there be found such an union of talents, both of writer and of artist, 

 as have combined to form this book. In other countries, something of 

 the kind has been attempted, in France, we believe in America and in Ger- 

 many ; but all have failed, and the inferiority, both of the designs and de- 

 scriptions, is most striking. 



It may easily be conceived, that such a work as English Botany must 

 have tended very materially to encourage the progress of this science, not 

 only by the valuable information which, for the space of twenty- three 

 years, it periodically imparted, the book being published in monthly num- 

 bers ; but also, because it necessarily proved a sure receptacle for every 

 new botanical discovery that was made during its progress. The experi- 

 enced naturalist made his communications and his remarks, for which full 

 credit was given him ; while the more humble botanist, and the young 

 aspirant after fame, had his acquisitions, and his name, recorded in a man- 

 ner that could not fail to urge him to renewed ardour in his pursuits. 

 We, ourselves, will not forget, while memory shall last, the sensations 

 excited by the first appearance of our name in print, when the Buxbaum- 

 ia aphylla was announced as having been detected in Britain, " by a 

 young naturalist of great promise." It gave a fresh stimulus to our ex- 

 ertions, and, aided by other circumstances occasioned by that discovery, 

 induced that bias in our pursuits, which has now made botany the study 

 and the pleasure of our life. 



There is scarcely a botanist of eminence of that period who did not com- 

 municate something to this valuable work. We may here enumerate, 

 amongst the most important contributors to the English Botany, the 

 names of Sir Thomas Cullum, Mr Crowe, Mr Dawson Turner, Mr Borrer, 

 Mr Dillwyn, Mr E. Forster, Mr G. Anderson, the Reverend G. R. 

 Leathes, Mr Griffith, Mr Templeton, Mrs Griffiths, and Miss Hutchins ; 

 — and, during the long period of its publication, it was frequently the 

 painful task of the author to record, in his own feeling language, the loss 

 of some or other of his friends. The conclusion of the work, with the 

 36th volume, in 1814, when it included all the then known British plants, 

 with the exception of the Fungi,* left a void which every cultivator of in- 

 digenous botany must have felt throughout the kingdom ; but which, we 

 hope, will not long exist. Mr J. D. Sowerby, the son of the late Mr 

 Sowerby, who possesses the same excellent talents with his father as an 

 artist, has many subjects ready for a continuation of the work, and he has 

 written to us for some of the recently discovered Scottish plants. 



It was not enough, however, that the Flora of our country should be 



" Of these Mr Sowerby commenced a work, witli most excellent figures, in small 

 folio. It extended only to three volumes. 



