170 



Notice of ' The British Flora : comprising the PhcBnogamoiis or 

 Flowering Plants, and the Ferns. The Sixth Edition, with Addi- 

 tions and Corrections, and numerous Figures illustrative of the 

 Umbelliferous Plants, the Composite Plants, the Grasses, and the 

 Ferns, Bj Sir William Jackson Hooker, K.H., LL.D., F.R.A. 

 and L.S., Vice-President of the Linnean Society and Director of 

 the Royal Botanic Gardens of Kew; and George A. Walker- 

 Arnott, LL.D., F.L.S. and R.S.E., and Regius Professor of Botany 

 in the University of Glasgow. London : Longman and Co. 1850.' 



In his ' Observations on Natural Systems of Botany,' Dr. Drum- 

 mond, in somewhat dolorous terms, comments upon the supposed 

 decline of a popular taste for botany in this country. This decline 

 he attributes to what he is pleased to consider the ill-advised eflforts 

 of Dr. Lindley and others, to place the study of that science upon 

 a more sound and more philosophical footing than had previously 

 obtained. Such lachrymose ' Observations ' as those of the worthy 

 Doctor, could only have emanated from one who is utterly ignorant 

 of, or wholly inattentive to, the spirit of the principles inculcated 

 by Linnaeus himself. No one who has studied the botanical works 

 of the great Swede with the attention they deserve, and with a mind 

 free from prejudice, can have failed to perceive that the spirit which 

 throughout animates his writings is essentially one of progress ; and 

 had their author lived to witness the full development of his earlier 

 labours, he would have been the first to condemn a slavish adherence 

 to the mere letter of a system, originally intended but to subserve 

 a merely temporary purpose. 



Dr. Drummond, moreover, lays great stress upon the circumstance 

 that Sir J. E. Smith, Mr. Roscoe, and other botanists who were emi- 

 nent in their day, attained eminence chiefly through their devotion to 

 the Linnsean artificial system of clssification. On the other hand, if 

 we remember aright, he censures Dr. Lindley for having abandoned 

 the use of that system, upon finding from experience that, per se, 

 it leads to little beyond a knowledge of names. In this Dr. Drum- 

 mond apparently forgets, or at all events he overlooks, the fact, that 

 Dr. Lindley has done little more than follow the example of Sir J. E. 

 Smith, Robert Brown, and other British botanists, who may fairly be 

 ranked among the facile principes of the science. These eminent 

 men, through steadily keeping in view the end and aim propounded 

 by Linnasus, as the only object worthy of pursuit to every true lover 



