1857.] BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. 95 



tung ' expresses a wish, which is general, that the work may be expedited ; 

 for, he says, it is now fourteen years since its commencement : a rather 

 long period in this age, wherein the work that formerly occupied a cen- 

 tury is now finished in a decade. — Botanisehe Zeitung. 



Meyee's Histoky of Botany. 



A third volume of this important contribution to our knowledge of 

 ancient and mediseval botany, was published before the close of the year 

 1856. Meyer's elaborate work has already been mentioned in the pages of 

 the ' Phytologist ;' and the following brief account of the contents of the 

 volume lately published will, it is hoped, be not unacceptable to our 

 readers. 



The ninth book of the work, anJ the first of the third volume, contains 

 the histoiy of botany among the ancient nations of the East ; for ex- 

 ample, among the Indians, the Persians, and the Nabathaeans (Arabians ?). 

 The history of botany among the Arabians is brought down to the four- 

 teenth centmy, and this is the subject of the tenth book. The eleventh 

 contains an account of the revival of science in Europe during the age of 

 Charles the Great (Charlemagne), Albertus Magnus, from 800 to 1250, 

 including the authors and founders of the Salernian school (Schola Saler- 

 nitana), describing in this part what was known about plants on this 

 side of the Alps in the twelfth century. A table of contents, and some 

 additions and emendations, finish both the book and the volume. 



All lovers of botany will join in the wish of the reviewer, from which 

 this notice is borrowed, that life, strength, encouragement, friendly assis- 

 tance, and money, may not fail the author, but that he may see his elabo- 

 rate work brought to a conclusion. ' The difficulty of the undertaking is 

 great, and the labour herculean. It is a subject of great interest to sci- 

 entific men in general. It is not a history merely of a science, but of hu- 

 man progress. The history of botany has been neglected since the time 

 of Sprengel, nearly half a century since. And Sprengel's work will appear 

 as a meagre performance by the side of that of the learned Professor of 

 Konigsberg. 



Book of the Plant-World ; or, a Botanical Journey round the World. 

 ' Vei'such einer Kosmischen Botanik.' By Dr. Carl Muller. 



This ideal botanic journey treats of plants not as a distinct or indepen- 

 dent portion of creation, but as connected with the inanimate class of 

 beings on the one hand, and with the animate and sentient on the other. 



The work is divided into four parts, yii., first, the vegetable kingdom in 

 its universality (Pflanzenstaat) ; second, the history of the vegetable king- 

 dom (Geschichte der Pflanzenwelt) ; tliird, the aspects of vegetation (Phy- 

 siognomik der Gewachse) ; fourth, the distribution of plants (Pflanzenver- 

 breitung). 



The first book treats specially on the relations of plants, viz. the relations 

 of plants to each other, as common plants ; generic and ordinal relation- 

 ships ; relations of plants to soil, etc. ; relations of form ; climatic relations, 

 naturalization, etc. 



The second book treats on the geological epochs in general, — as the 



