Trees and Shrubs of Massachusetts. 175 



REVIEWS. 



Art. I. A Report on the Trees and Shrubs, graving natur- 

 ally in the forests of Massachusetts : published agreeably to 

 an order of the Legislature. By the Commissioners on the 

 Zoological and Botanical Survey of the State. 1 Vol. 8vo. 

 pp. 547. Boston. Button &. Went worth, State printers. 1846. 



This long anticipated and very valuable document, pre- 

 pared by George B. Emerson, Esq., has fulfilled the expec- 

 tations of those, who, more or less familiar with the subject, 

 yet needed the information therein contained, in a condensed 

 and plain form ; in such a form, indeed, as Avould render it 

 useful to the man of practical business, and as a reference to 

 him of more studious habits. Knowing the method employed 

 to render this report as practical and as acurate as possible, we 

 awaited in patient expectation its publication, feeling that 

 nothing would be lost by delay. Considering the circumstan- 

 ces under which it has issued, we can only be surprised that 

 so much has been done, and done so well. The author is a 

 gentleman of most assiduous habits of life, and engaged, for 

 the most part, in instruction of a very high order, demanding 

 his undivided attention while so employed. He is favorably 

 known as engaged in many popular schemes of education, 

 and as the patron of sound learning in its every department, 

 through his personal influence, as well as by his ready pen. 

 Amidst the variety of reading, which now presents itself to 

 the scholar, and besides these other and primary pursuits, he 

 has found some brief moments in which nature, in her many 

 departments of study, has been also regarded. With an ever 

 open eye and a finely cultivated, as well as natural taste for the 

 beautiful and the grand, for objects minute or great, he has 

 rendered himself not only an amateur, but in no small mea- 

 sure, a practical naturalist. A familiarity with such studies 

 is not to be obtained merely from books, but from observation 

 and personal inspection ; of such a kind as the volume before 

 us bears ample record. To collect and to condense the mass 

 of information laid before the public on this subject, is in itself 

 no small labor. To simplify, classify and render it delight- 



