servation and comparison may find the most interesting employment, 
and all his reasoning powers be exercised according to the strictest 
_ rules of logic and philosophy. The investigation of the true charac- 
ters of plants will conduct him at once to a just estimate of their pro- 
perties, and enable him to judge correctly of their economical value ; 
so that while he is indulging in the pleasures of science for their own 
sake, he may at the same time silence the cavillings of the mere utili- 
tarian, by demonstrating the practical importance of true scientific at- 
tainments. This is one of the eminent advantages resulting from an 
intimate knowledge of vegetable structure and physiology, and from 
the study of those natural affinities which suggest the grouping of 
plants into families or orders; and such are the advantages which 
may be confidently expected from the general introduction and proper 
use of the Botanical Text Book, in the many respectable seminaries of 
learning in the United States. 
The principles on which the vegetable kingdom is classified, or ar- 
ranged into natural families, are briefly but lucidly exhibited, in the 
second part of the work; and cannot fail to be perfectly intelligible 
to every inquiring mind. When the botanical student shall have be- 
come familiar with the elementary truths so ably set forth in this Text 
Book, he will have only to provide himself with a copy of the Flora 
of North America, (now in process of publication by the same author, 
in conjunction with his accomplished friend, Prof. Torrey,) and dili- 
gently to consult the pages of that inestimable work, in order to know 
and appreciate the vegetable treasures distributed over the vast terri- 
tory, extending from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic seas. With 
such aids, and such attractive inducements to a rational acquaintance 
with the vegetable creation, it may be fairly calculated that the study 
of botany i in our country will soon be adapted to the actual condition 
of the science ; and that its votaries will not only multiply in number, 
but be enabled to vindicate its claims to the rank of a truly useful and 
philosophical pursuit. 
writer of these hasty and desultory remarks, is unwilling to 
paucpecgp without manifesting his sincere gratification at the recent ap- 
of the author of the Botanical Text Book to the Fisher Pro- 
fantasy of Natural History in Harvard University. It is a distinction 
as richly merited as it was honorably conferred; and while we may 
hope that the situation will afford the incumbent many facilities to pros- 
ecute his botanical labors with increased advantage, it will not be de- 
nied that the Trustees of Harvard have been both sagacious and fortu- 
nate in securing, for their venerable institution, the services of the new 
Professor of Natural History, W.D.. 
weet. Slaess 
