Don's System of Gardening and Botany. 699 



species of the pretty plants of this really ornamental and very 

 interesting, and, we may say, very natural order ; for, who 

 does not recognise the pea-podded plants, as they are familiarly 

 called, all the world over ? The orders ^mygdaleae, ^osaceae, 

 Pomacese, Onagrariae, iythrariae, Melastomaceae, and Myr- 

 taceae, all and each of which contain plants so very beautiful, 

 fall into this volume. Perhaps an abatement of our objection 

 above expressed to the gardening title of this work is due 

 to its talented and prodigiously industrious author ; for, in 

 glancing through the volume, we see, under ^mygdalus, no 

 fewer than eleven pages of gardening information on the 

 peach and nectarine, enumerating the kinds, noticing their 

 comparative qualities and merits, and supplying dii'ections 

 for their successful cultivation both in the open air and in 

 houses. The same kind of information is supplied imder 

 Apricot, Plum, and Cherry; Apple and Pear ; and, probably, 

 in several other cases which we have overlooked. 



We cannot stay longer on the volume than to say, that, 

 were it only for the strictly botanical stock of information 

 which is amassed into the work, it ought to be possessed by 

 every studier and cultivator of plants in the world, but espe- 

 cially by those of Britain. Especially by those of Britain, 

 because such have previously had no comprehensive work in 

 our native language to which to make access for the determin- 

 ation of the names, habits, and affinities of the plants they 

 cultivate ; by those of the continents of Europe and America 

 (and these include nearly all the botanical world), because, 

 independently of this work availing those who know the 

 language in which it is written, in the same manner, and 

 almost to the same extent, as it will the British plant lovers 

 and cultivators, it will be very useful to botanists universally, 

 as supplying to them a palpable indication of the present 

 state of botany in Britain ; and this, without incurring to us 

 the charge of gross nationality, may fairly be deemed a pretty 

 accurate indication of the state of systematic botany in the 

 entire world. For, besides the acquaintance with the dis- 

 coveries in, and contributions to, the science by foreigners, 

 with which their publications, preserved in our libraries, make 

 us acquainted, we possess fruitful original resources in our 

 colonies, our commerce to the remotest shores, and in the 

 enterprise of our travellers, who, for some years past, have 

 manifested a most commendable interest in collecting the ne- 

 cessary materials to extend our knowledge of nature. Of this 

 accumulated stock of materials, a comprehensive systematic 

 catalogue, containing short descriptive notices of the objects 

 enumerated in it, has for some years past been wanted, and 

 this want it is the office of the present work to supply. 



