Review of Gray's Botany. 315 



scription of plants, and rendered still more valuable from em- 

 bracing a wider area of localities, indicated somewhat natu- 

 rally by the limits of the northern sections of this country. 



In the older manuals, great difficulty has occurred to the 

 student in the study of certain genera and species, more par- 

 ticularly the grass-like plants, of which the Cyperacese may 

 be cited as a striking example. For, however accurate such 

 descriptions were, none but a devotee to such plants could 

 distinguish with certainty any species coming under his in- 

 spection. Much of this difficulty arose from the want of 

 such division, sections, and subsections, (founded on some 

 striking peculiarities,) as should point out a group of species 

 which more closely resembled each other. Nor is it to be 

 imagined that, in plants so numerous in the number of spe- 

 cies, as these actually are, there should not have frequently 

 been mistakes made and repeated, in their nomenclature. To 

 satisfy the inquirer in such researches, resort was necessary 

 to those individuals, in this country or abroad, who have 

 particularly studied them ; and, as the results of their studies 

 were scattered in the various publications, they were, as it 

 were, beyond reach of many. We learn, however, in the 

 Manual of Dr. Gray, that he was " under very great obligation 

 to" his -'excellent friend, John Carey, Esq., for important 

 assistance rendered throughout the progress of the work, and 

 especially for the elaboration of ... . the vast and difficult 

 genus, Carex." (Preface, p. ix.) The same remarks belong 

 to another obscurely designated group of plants, of the larger 

 structure of shrubs and trees, the willows and poplars, as 

 specified in the work before us. A condensation, as it were, 

 of the valuable labors of Torry, Schweinitz, Dewey, Tuck- 

 erman, Boott, and others, into a form so appropriate to ordi- 

 nary use, is a recommendation of this book to the student. 



The ordinary extent of our American floras has been here- 

 tofore limited to a description of the Filices or fern-like 

 plants, in the great and exceedingly interesting natural class 

 of Cryptogamia. The present work is an improvement in 

 this respect ; and we learn that the species of Mitsci and He- 

 paticcB^ (mosses and liverworts,) were elaborated by Mr. Sul- 

 livant, of Ohio, '* who has, for a long time, made them the 

 subject of special attention and illustration." (Preface, ix.) 



