Revieiu of Gray' s Botany. 317 



water streams and ponds, and some, the almost aerial inhabi- 

 tants of humid earth, stones, or damp situations, are scat- 

 tered profusely over the area of our country. We are aware 

 that several students, eminent for their patience of research, 

 are already interesting themselves in their investigation, and 

 confidently expect that our native flora will, ere long, be rep- 

 resented in these particulars, of so rich and varied a charac- 

 ter. A reach of sea-coast, extending through so many de- 

 grees of latitude, must furnish a most varied exhibition of 

 marine forms, of which, if some should prove identical with 

 those of Europe and of the old world, others will doubtless 

 represent the peculiarities of our own continent. 



The labors of Schvveinitz, in the last and lower order of 

 fungi, are known, and can be estimated only by those who 

 are somewhat acquainted with this vast group of plants. 

 In the fourth volume of the Transactions of the American 

 Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, (New Series,) may be 

 found mention of 3,098 distinct species, composing a synopsis 

 of the fungi of Middle North America, and mostly detected 

 in Pennsylvania and the Carolinas. Of almost every form 

 of grotesqueness to that of elegance, and growing on almost 

 every kind of organized matter in process of decay, these 

 wonderful plants are as interesting, in the economy they sub- 

 serve in nature, as they are highly curious in their elaborate 

 structure. Requiring powerful microscopes to examine their 

 internal or more concealed proportions, in order to accurately 

 classify them, they have not received, hitherto, except in 

 such striking instances as we have just noticed, the attention 

 which their importance deserved. Some of the common 

 manuals only, have given a very imperfect and brief list of a 

 few more generally known or supposed to be determined; 

 and this noble field of enterprise has lain almost totally neg- 

 lected for want of means to explore it. We are, therefore, 

 happy to add, in continuance of Dr. Gray's remarks, in his 

 preface, so often quoted by us in this our present notice, that, 

 "in a second edition, 1 hope to give, by means of a supple- 

 mentary volume, and through the aid of accomplished col- 

 laborators, not only the Lichenes, but also the two remaining 

 orders of the lower Cryptogamous plants, namely, the AlgcB 

 or seaweeds, and the Fungi.^' (Preface, 1. c. 

 27* 



