Bibliographical Notices. 497 



perly so called of the Fungi ; and 2. the spores of the Cordyliceps, 

 in which probahly resides the most perfect faculty of propaga- 

 tion, and a great portion of which are only ripened and disse- 

 minated about the period of the flowering of the Rye*. 



An examination which I have made of the Ergot of Scirpus 

 Baothryon and Heleocharis multicaidis, and of their conidia, leads 

 me to think, contrary to the common opinion, that the Ergot of 

 the Grasses and that of the Cyperacese do not belong to an iden- 

 tical species of vegetable ; it will also be necessary to investigate 

 whether it is true that they are always identical in themselves, 

 or whether each may not embrace several distinct specific en- 

 tities. 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 



Class Book of Botany ; being an Introduction to the study of the 

 Vegetable Kingdom. By J. H. Balfour, M.D. &c, and Pro- 

 fessor of Botany in the University of Edinburgh. Part I. Struc- 

 tural and Morphological Botany. 8vo. Pp. 35". Edinburgh, 

 Black, 1852. 



Notices of introductory works on botany cannot fail to be very uni- 

 form in character, for all such books having the same object in view, 

 we have little more to do than to state our opinion of the success with 

 which the several treatises have been prepared. New matter is not 

 to be expected in them, at least such is the case with those published 

 in Britain ; for some continental botanists seem to forget that an Intro- 

 duction is intended to teach beginners of the study, not to convey 

 information, however valuable and interesting, to those who have 

 made much advance, or are even masters in the science. 



The work before us makes no pretensions to be different in character 

 from other similar books ; but it does pretend, and we think justly, to 

 be not only the last of them, but also one of the best books to place in the 

 hands of a student. From the Professor's peculiar success as a teacher, 

 and the especial attention which he is well known to pay to the pre- 

 paration of his lectures by accumulating every fact as it is made 

 known in the literature of the day, we certainly expected that such 

 would prove to be the character of his work. We have carefully 

 looked over the book, but find it impossible to select any part which 

 would by transference to our pages convey a good idea of the work 

 itself ; for the publisher has so liberally supplied the author with 

 woodcuts, that without introducing them also we should not do it 

 justice. These cuts are more than a thousand in number in 360 pages 

 of type, and they are such as to replace as far it can be done the 

 illustrations with which a lecturer teaches his class. 



* In like manner we see the Maples already clothed with young leaves 

 in spring, when the Rhytisma cerinum casts its linear spores to the winds. 



