Reviews. — Herbaceous Plants of J\Iassachusetts. 227 



REVIEWS. 



Art. I. The Herbaceous Plants of Massachusetts, <^c. ^'•c. 

 pp. 268. Being a Report published agreeably to an order 

 of the Legislature. By the Commissioners of the Zoologi- 

 cal and Botanical Survey of ihe State. Cambridge, &c. 

 1840. 



The author of this Report is the "Rev. Chester Dewey, 

 Prof, of Chemistry, Botany, and Natural Philosophy in the 

 Berkshire Medical Institution at Pittsfield." Two individu- 

 als were selected to report on the Botany of the State, and that 

 part of our flora, pertaining to the herbaceous flowering plants, 

 was allotted to our author. Regarding the justice he has done 

 to this interesting subject, a perusal of the paper can only de- 

 termine: his ability in the requisite means is manifest by "a 

 previous attention, for years, to the examination of our plants. " 



We learn that the Report was made on the basis of a "Cata- 

 logue of Plants, growing without cultivation in the Common- 

 wealth, arranged according to the natural method of Lindley, 

 as published and applied to the Plants of this country, by 

 Prof. Torrey, of New York," furnished "by Prof. Hitchcock, 

 in the Geology of the State," See P. 6. 



Of the plan, method, and object of the present Report, — 



"It has been supposed, too, that while the objects to be at- 

 tained by the legislature in the survey required a systematic ar- 

 rangement in the outline, it was important that the descriptions 

 should be popular in their character, easy to be apprehended, 

 and not technical in their language, and that notice should be 

 taken of facts of importance or of interest in any respect. The 

 botanical name, with the usual abbreviation of the author's 

 name, has been given, but without the synonymes; because 

 one name would direct the botanist to the plant intended, and 

 more names, and even all the synonymes, would offer no ad- 

 vantage to the common reader." 



"The cultivated plants have been introduced, whether rais- 

 ed in the garden or on the farm, and many of the parlor, 

 whether designed for ornament, food, clothing, or art, or man- 

 ufacture. All these were supposed to have been intended in 

 the survey of vegetable life in the Commonwealth." — P. 7. 



