Bibliographical Notices. 287 



of iuterestiug information about common plants is given in the un- 

 affected manner of a lady, too sensible to be a pedant, coutributinf 

 the results of a more than usually extensive reading to a circle of 

 educated friends. 



Poets, of various temper and of various countries, are made to confess 

 their worship of Flora ; antiquariauism from most diverse sources, 

 with home and outlandish folk-lore, lend a curious interest to these 

 pages, — while 'useful information' finds a due place in the poHshed 

 piece of ' inlaid-work ' which a refined taste and good sense have 

 imited to produce. Quotation with a view to give a specimen of 

 such a work is out of the question, since everything depends upon 

 the skilful and harmonious blending of the subject-matter, drawn 

 from an infinity of sources. 



The work is illustrated by twelve very pretty and faithful coloured 

 drawings of British wild-flowers and "twenty-four good woodcuts. 

 It is a volume we gladly see added to Mr. Van Voorst's list, as an 

 addition to the rather smaU number of meritorious productions which 

 stand between special scientific works and the science-made-easy trash 

 of the cheap -book manufacturers. 



How Plants Grow : a sitnjtle Introduction to Structural Botany, 

 with a Popular Flora ; or an Arrangement and Description of 

 Common Plants, both Wild and Cultivated. Bv Asa Gray, M.D. 

 New York, Ivison and Finney, 1858. 



If Botany is to be taught to the million, there need be no long 

 search for suitable means. Three of our English Professors have 

 written A-B-C books on the subject ; and here Prof. Asa Gray per- 

 forms a corresponding service for our American brethren. " This 

 work differs somewhat, and for its purpose favourably, from any of 

 our native books, — being as it were a combination of the plans of 

 Henslow's or Henfrey's rudimentary books and Lindley's School 

 Botany, worked-out, however, in a perfectly original manner. The 

 first Part, treatmg of structural, and, to some extent, of physiological 

 botany, is very skilfully written, and we think must prove an excel- 

 lent teaching book. The second Part relates of course to the fami- 

 liar forms of the North American Flora. Here, as in his other works, 

 Prof. Gray uses the Natural System, with an analytical Key, and is 

 quite independent of the Linnaean System. In some of the more 

 important Orders, such as Cruciferse and Umbelliferae, only the 

 genera are given ; and in Compositae, Grasses, and Sedges, not even 

 these, — as being too difficult for beginners. On the other hand, the 

 common plants of the gardens of the United States are described with 

 the native species, being distinguished by proper marks. 



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