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THURSDAY, AUGUST 31, 18 



THE LITERATURE OF BOTANY 

 Guide to the Literature of Botany. Being a Classified 

 Selection of Botanical Works, including nearly 6000 

 titles not given in Pritzel's " Thesaurus." By Ben- 

 jamin Daydon Jackson, Secretary to the Linnean 

 Society. Pp. xl. 626. (London : published for the 

 Index Society by Longmans, Green and Co.. and 

 Dulau and Co., 1881.) 

 I 'egetable Technology, A Contribution towards a Biblio- 

 graphy of Economic Botany, with a comprehensive 

 Subject index. Pp. xii., 355. (Same Author and 

 Publishers, 1882.) 

 A17E have here two books of unequal importance 

 » » which nevertheless have so much in common 

 that they may fitly be noticed together. Both are pro- 

 duced by the same author, and under the auspices of the 

 same Society -a Society, by the way, which has not 

 escaped severe criticism of the cut bono order, but which 

 goes far towards justifying its raiso/i d'etre by the publi- 

 cation of works like those now to be considered. The 

 "Guide to the Literature of Botany" was issued about 

 a year since, but has not been noticed in these pages ; so 

 that the appearance of the later work furnishes an oppor- 

 tunity for some reference to the former. 



We have referred to the two volumes as unequal in 

 importance — seeing that one offers itself as a guide to the 

 whole of botanical literature, while the other only occupies 

 a small portion of the same wide field. But the inference 

 that " Vegetable Technology " was merely a portion of 

 the larger work would be very incorrect ; the two volumes 

 are quite distinct, and are treated in a different manner, 

 and neither covers the ground occupied by the other. The 

 arrangement cfthe two books is also different. The "Guide" 

 is a list of books classified under headings expressing dif- 

 ferent branches of the subject, the index consisting of the 

 authors' names, with reference to the titles (abbreviated) 

 of their works By the time Mr. Jackson had completed 

 the " Guide," he was fully conscious of the inconveniences 

 of this plan ; and formed a resolution that, if again 

 engaged in any similar labour, he '* would steadily adhere 

 to the practice of ranging the works under an alpha- 

 betical sequence of authors' names" ; this resolution 

 he has carried out in "Vegetable Technology." There 

 can, we think, be little doubt as to the advantage of this 

 latter plan. It is by no means easy to classify some 

 works ; and Mr. Jackson's grouping in his earlier volume, 

 although at least as good as could have been expected, 

 is sometimes not quite satisfactory. One does not quite 

 know what to expect under such headings as " Maturiza- 

 tion " (p. 101), "What is a Species?" (p. 97), or " Sundry 

 Phenomena" (p. 107). A reader searching for references 

 to works on the bamboos would find one such treatise 

 under Bambusa ; but he would hardly think of searching 

 further under the heading "Textile Plants," where, 

 nevertheless, is a second book on the subject, " Bamboo 

 and its Uses," by S. Kurz. A cross reference here, as in 

 many other cases, is almost essential; on the system 

 adopted in " Vegetable Technology," a help of this kind 

 is supplied by the index of subjects. The island of St. 

 Vol. xxvi. — No. 670 



Croix is not in Oceania (p. 404), but in the West Indies. 

 Ellis's " Directions for bringing over Seeds " would be 

 better under "Plant-collection" (p. 217) than under 

 "Botanical Gardens" (p. 405); Crepin's "Guide du 

 Botaniste," if placed among "local Floras," should cer- 

 tainly be also referred to under the first-named heading ; 

 Lemaire's Flore des Serves has so much in common with 

 the Botanical Magazine, that it seems strange to find the 

 former under " Botanical Gardens" (p. 406) and the latter 

 under "Serial Publications" (p. 473). Criticisms of this 

 kind might, if needed, be almost indefinitely extended ; 

 but probably enough has been said to show that a classified 

 list is open to considerable objections, of which, as has 

 been already shown, the author himself is fully aware. 



We have alluded to cases in which a cross-reference 

 would have been of great use ; this is very noticeable in 

 the section devoted to "Monographs." Under Com- 

 posite, for example, only two memoirs are noted ; but in 

 the same section are at least twenty papers or treatises 

 devoted to plants belonging to the same order. There 

 are four entries under Solanacca- j references to Capsicum, 

 Datura, and Nicotiana would have been useful. 



But allowing that there are matters of detail which 

 might have been improved, there cannot be two opinions 

 as to the great value of Mr. Jackson's work. The mere 

 fact that it includes "nearly 6000 titles not given in 

 Pritzel's ' Thesaurus ' " testifies not only to its useful- 

 ness, but to the industry of its compiler in hunting up 

 omissions ; for although many of the works have been 

 issued since the publication of the "Thesaurus" (1871), 

 the proportion of treatises omitted from that invaluable 

 w r ork is very considerable. Theie may be some who 

 regret that Mr. Jackson did not give us a new edition 

 of Pritzel while his hand was in ; but as he tells us that 

 "the Guide is meant to be suggestive, not exhaustive," 

 we have no right to complain that he does not give more 

 than he intended ; and indeed the general feeling v. \\\ 

 be one of satisfaction that he has given us so much. 



In the preface to his second volume Mr. Jackson tells 

 us that " a complete bibliography of Economic Botany 

 would need the labour of years ; " and this seems at least 

 probable if we accept his previous statement that " the 

 bibliography of the vine in all its bearings would require 

 a lifetime for its compilation." As we hope to have much 

 more good work from Mr. Jackson — notably the new- 

 edition of Steudel's " Nomenclator," upon which vast 

 undertaking he is now, with characteristic energy, en- 

 gaged —we do not blame him for putting the exacting 

 vine on one side. Besides independent works, "Vegetable 

 Technology" includes the titles of papers in the Journal 

 of the Society of Arts and the Pharmaceutical four/nil, 

 with some from the fournal of Applied Science, and the 

 Tcclinologist. We could have wished that the many 

 excellent papers in the various botanical journals edited 

 by Sir W. J. Hooker, 1 as well as others published in the 

 fournal of Botany during recent years had been in- 

 cluded : the Gardeners' Chronicle, too, is only quoted 

 at second-hand, when papers have found their way from 

 its pages into those of the Pharmaceutical fournal. In 

 many cases Mr. Jackson has added the scientific name of 



1 It is much to be regretted that there is n) index worthy of the name to 

 any of these journals, which contain a va-t amount of useful matter. Will 

 the Index Society at some later date place botanists under still further obli- 

 gations to them by undertaking this work ? 



