REVIEWS— HOW PLANTS GROW. 145 



suggestive observations on tlie same subject, whicb occur in tbe 

 article in this Journal, above referred to.. The remarks are thus 

 introduced, in commenting on a passage in Dr. Morton's " Crania 

 Americana,"" on forms peculiar to American skulls: " Dr. Morton 

 adds, in describing an unsyminetrical skull, ' I had almost omitted 

 the remark that this irregularity of form is common in, and peculiar 

 to, American crania.^ The latter remark, however, is far too vpide a 

 generalization. I haye repeatedly noted the like unsymmetrical 

 characteristics in the Brachy cephalic crania of the Scottish Barrows, 

 and it has occurred to my mind, on more than one occasion, v^^hether 

 such may not furnisb an indication of some partial compression, 

 dependent, it may be, on the mode of nurture in infancy, having 

 tended, in their case also, if not to produce, to exaggerate the short 

 longitudinal diameter, which constitutes one of their most remarkable 

 characteristics." — Canadian Journal, vol ii. p. 426. 



It cannot be viewed otherwise than with interest, by tbe readers 

 of the Canadian Journal, thUs to find observations made on crania 

 dug up from the Indian graves of our Canadian clearings, reflecting 

 light on characteristics of the aboriginal Briton, it may be, of many 

 centuries prior to the Christian era. D. "W. 



Sow Plants Groio: A simple Introduction to Structural Botany, 

 loitli a popular Flora ; or, An Arrangement and Description of 

 common Plants, lotTi Wild and Cultivated. By Asa Gray, M.D. 

 New York : Ivison and Phinney. 1858. 

 If Botany is not as mucli taught in our schools for the young of 

 both sexes, as we might expect from its attractions, and might desire 

 from its lasting and untiring interest, the practical usefulness of many 

 of its facts, and its valuable effect on the mind, regarded as a means of 

 cultivating the faculties, the deficiency can no longer be ascribed to 

 the want of excellent books suited to every stage in the student's pro- 

 gress, and even especially adapted in their choice of illustrations to the 

 country in which we dwell. Besides the various excellent introductory 

 works of some of the leading British Botanists, as Lindley, Balfour, 

 Henslow, and Henfrey, not here to refer to those produced in other 

 countries, we have from the pen of Professor Gray of Harvard Univet- 

 sity7 a series of books of very remarkable merit, their characteristics 

 being a thorough knowledge of the subject in all its aspects ; judgment 



