120 



lum, Sir William takes no notice whatever of Presl's masterly work, 

 but redescribes that author's species as new, and §ives them new 

 names : but when his attention is called to Presl's Monograph, we 

 find a summary of its contents given in the ' Synopsis Filicum,' as a 

 kind of episode to the previous descriptions. 



Many other instances could easily be pointed out in which similar 

 objections could be raised; but we trust that Sir William Hooker will 

 yet endeavour to make his work deserving of that patronage which 

 all botanists are anxious to give it, on the faith of the author's repu- 

 tation. No man living possesses such opportunities of making a per- 

 fect work on the Species of Ferns, as Sir Wra. Hooker. His habitual 

 use of the pen : his own matchless herbarium ; the living collection 

 at Kew, brought to such perfection by Mr. Smith ; and the assistance 

 of that great pteridologist — that walking Encyclopedia of Fern Sci- 

 ence, ever at hand to solve all questions of doubt and difl&culty : — 

 such a combination of favourable circumstances tend to place our au- 

 thor in a situation rarely if ever enjoyed by a botanical monographer. 

 And sincerely do we trust that the work, when complete, may be alike 

 honorable to its author and profitable to the spirited publisher, who, 

 we hear, has undertaken it at his own cost and risk, a fact which, con- 

 sidered in reference to the notorious want of patronage for scientific 

 works, does him, in our estimation, infinite credit. 



We must not conclude this brief notice without expressing our ad- 

 miration of the excellently drawn plates, twenty in each part, and 

 each containing figures of several species. 



Notice of the ' London Journal of Botany.'' No. 38, February, and 

 No. 39, March, 1845. 



These numbers contain the following papers on exotic Botany: — 



' Decades of Fungi,' by the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, M.A., F.L.S. 



' Description of a New Genus of Papaveraceae, detected by the late 

 Dr. Coulter in California,' by W. H. Harvey, M.D., M.R.S.A. 



' Characters of two New Genera of Cruciferae, discovered by the 

 late Dr. Coulter in California,' by W. H. Harvey, M.D., M.R.S.A. 



' HepaticaB Antarcticse, Supplementum, or Specific Characters with 

 brief descriptions of some additional species of the Hepaticae of the 

 Antarctic Regions, New Zealand and Tasmania, together with a few 

 from the Atlantic Islands and New Holland,' by J. D. Hooker, 

 M.D.R.N., and Thos. Taylor, M.D. 



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