94 NEW PUBLICATIOKS: 
pleased liis patrons, we liave sliglit means of knowing ; but we do 
know that his scientific brethren have censured him most severely for 
attempting a task from wliich they prudently abstained. We 
read all that has been said against this book — who has not ? — and do 
not lliink that even the worst is more daraas^inor than what could be 
o'"o 
said with equal force against some of the leading books, which Mr, 
Grindon^s does not profess to be. We have also read the paper war 
wiiich the author has carried on with his reviewers, and our impression 
was that in writing this volume he relied too much upon authorities 
and not enough upon his own observation, and that he was labouring 
under tlie mistaken notion that L^tndoners w^re not prepared to do 
full justice to anything that had been done in the provinces. If pro- 
vincials fail to obtain in Londoa. that ready recognition they expect, 
it is simply owing to their writings not being up to the mark — no other 
cause. 
The volume opens with an Introduction to Structural and Physiolo- 
gical Botany. It is succeeded by an Artificial Key to the different 
Natural Orders. We have tried this Key, and have found it to answer 
in many, though not in all instances ; but its general utility can 
only be tested by going through the whole volume carefully. In a po- 
pular book, such as the author has attempted to produce, it was abso- 
lutely necessary to rely vei'y often upon non-essential characters, such 
as have no value in the eyes of sound systematic botanists, but which 
could be readily seen by those for whose special use the Key was con- 
structed. The difficulties of contriving a Key are so great, that to 
our knowledge the author of one of our leading Floras has been on 
the point of omitting it altogether in his new edition, and only re- 
tained it at the request of lys friends. We only pointed out, at page 
7 of our second volume, that by none of the Keys affixed to our dif- 
ferent Moras could such a common plant as Bydrocotyle vulgaris be 
made out. And we have the same complaint to prefer against this 
book. In looking for Bydrocotyle we stuck fnstat page 76, where 
we have 
im 
'llifer^^ etc.). Now, as Hydrocotyl 
(Hedi 
mamelide^ 
>g the -Ha 
Heliosciadi 
! The same remark applies to 
