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feet. To accomplish this object, I had to keep in view two important 

 particulars, — to make the descriptions clear and distinctive, and at the 

 same time to condense the whole as much as possible, so that the 

 work might be comprised in a single volume, of a bulk not inconveni- 

 ent for the use of the traveller." Further, " It will be perceived from 

 this account that the work has no pretensions to originality. My 

 task has been to translate and harmonize, as well as I could, the de- 

 scriptions of different botanists ; and I have added the result of my 

 own observations only where it seemed to be absolutely necessary : 

 considering that to give my own view would often have only been, to 

 add one more to opinions already too numerous." 



The volume of Mr. Woods will readily pass the first ordeal of pub- 

 lishers and critics, who may ask whether the work is one calculated 

 to meet any desideratum in botanical literature. We have repeatedly 

 been asked by English botanists, particularly ladies, who were intend- 

 ing to make a more or less extensive continental tour, what portable 

 work they should carry with them, to assist in identifying the plants 

 they might find in their route. Hitherto, we could seldom give any 

 satisfactory answer to this interrogation ; partly because the Latin, or 

 even the modern languages, often presented an impediment to the use 

 of the continental floras ; and partly because those floras usually refer 

 to a single country or kingdom, while the tourists would visit portions 

 of several. In the name of the work now under notice, we are at 

 length furnished with a ready and sufficient answer to the same query, 

 whenever it may be again proposed to us. 



Secondly, allowing that an Author may fairly claim the right of pro- 

 jecting a work according to his own conceptions of what is desirable 

 and feasible, its purchasers have also their right to expect that the pub- 

 lished work shall be carefully and faithfully executed in accordance 

 with the title and plan announced by its Author. Now, while in 

 some respects the plan of Mr. Woods's work seems open to consider- 

 able improvement, and numerous small defects of execution appear in 

 his pages, we still cannot hesitate to say in general terms, that the 

 Author has well and truly performed his part of* the implied contract 

 with the public, that is, with its purchasers. From the internal evi- 

 dence there can be no doubt that much assiduous attention has been 

 bestowed on 'The Tourist's Flora,' and that much effort has been 

 made to render it complete, concise, accurate, and serviceable, so far 

 as its plan may allow. This is no small merit in these days of hastv 

 book-making, when so many "new works" in science are got up by 



