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Notice of TJie Elements of Botany. By M. Adrien de Jussieu, 

 translated by James Hewetson Wilson, F.L.S., F.R.B.S., &c, 

 &c.' London: Van Voorst, Paternoster Row, 1849. 



A very good book very well translated. 



At a period when elementary works on Zoology and Botany are 

 more abundant than students, and are for the most part the handi- 

 work of those who have never advanced beyond the elements of the 

 respective sciences, it is very refreshing to be presented with an in- 

 troductory work by one who, like his great namesakes, has climbed 

 the tree of botanical knowledge to its topmost bough. It is some- 

 what remarkable that France should have produced three such dis- 

 tinguished botanists of one name, and we believe of one family. 

 The eldest, Bernard de Jussieu, was one of those whose pleasure lies 

 in acquiring rather than in diffusing knowledge. His comprehensive 

 views of system, shared, we must recollect, by the great Linnaeus, 

 were rather depicted than described. Tn the gardens of the Trianon 

 he drew a map of that method which has since received his name 

 and the approbation of the scientific world. It remained for Antoine 

 Laurent de Jussieu to make the world acquainted with the views of 

 his predecessor. This gifted man began his labours by editing the 

 manuscript catalogue of the plants as arranged by Bernard at the 

 Trianon, so that the exact state of botanical knowledge at that period 

 is registered in a manner that can never be obliterated. Antoine's 

 own labours followed, and by a comparison of these with the cata- 

 logue in question, we see at a glance the exact share of each in that 

 system which has almost universally received the title of natural. 

 On this, as on all questions worked out by a plurality of minds, the 

 disciples have contended for differences which the teachers never en- 

 forced, have introduced antagonism where all might have been har- 

 moniously blended. The numerical system of Linnaeus has its 

 foundation in nature equally with the more comprehensive system of 

 Jussieu : witness the ternary flowers of the endogens : the error was 

 in making number too exclusively the guide. Number is an invalu- 

 able assistant, but a most arbitrary master. 



The following extract from the work before us will be read with 

 interest. 



" A. L. de Jussieu admits, like Adanson, that the examination of 

 all the parts of a plant is necessary for its classification, but, whilst 

 he was pursuing this complete examination, he did not endeavour to 



