440 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 
to make up cheap books, to the great profit of compiler and publisher, 
and the great loss of the young in whose hands no works except those of 
the highest character should be placed. Indeed, a good text-book of 
science, like a picture or a poem, is a work of art, the creation of which 
requires extensive knowledge, abundant resources and a generous and 
enthusiastic love of nature. And, even where these exist, none but a - 
master can rightly sieze the leading pet and principles and exhibit them 
in language at once precise, clear and simple—ean be brief without being 
filled, as is true in the of the & First A sas in fe and Vege- 
table Physiology” irom ‘ies e pen of Dr. Gray. It is a model of its kind; 
and meeting a want —* and widely felt, it —_ sooner or later win its 
way into all our schools and seminaries of lea . After a chapter on 
the general relations of ihe science, it treats of. the — of the plant 
the seed,—the nature of roots, stems and leaves,—the arrangement 
of the leaves, structure of the flower and leniditien:| of ‘the several parts,— 
the fruit—vegetable tissues and the process of growth, or nutrition and 
circulation—the permanency of species—classification ;—and closes with 
to their preparation, the good style in which they are penne and the 
great number and excellence of their illustrations (from drawings by ese 
Sprague), the wonder is, that they can be sold at so pear rates. 
borat ome: that they may meet with a circulation, ——— to 
c. P. 
IV. MISCELLANEOUS SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE. 
mdence of M. Jerome Nicklés, dated pata 3, 1857. 
- “Blech illumination—A few weeks ‘since e experiments on 
electric illumination were made at Paris, surpassing oak that had before 
been done. The success was due to an electric regulator inve 
MM. Lacassagne and Thiers, called by them an ¢lectro-metric i 
in structure and cannot well be described here. 
; tors: placed four of their electric lamps on the platform of ae aaray 
‘Taicenphe: de lEtoile, and projected the light one day on the Champs 
ee ee 
; 
: 
4 
4 
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