REVIEWS — OUTLINES OF ELEMENTARY BOTANY. 79 



interpretation of a system with -wliicli we must desire to be acquainted. 

 "We only strongly recommend to the student a careful comparison of 

 the opinions and statements of Professor Greene, with what he will 

 find in the volume of Agassiz, on the Acalephae. In this short notice 

 of a useful summary we cannot discuss the disputed questions, but 

 they are of such leading importance, as to affect the use of the work 

 as a text book, where its doctrines are not received. 



W. H. 



Outlines of Elemenfary Botaraj, as Introductory to Local Floras. 



By George Bentham, Esq., V.P.L.S. London : Lovell Reeve. 



1861. 



"We have here a work of small size and modest pretensions, but of 

 the highest merit. It proceeds from one of the first botanists of our 

 age — one who most eminently unites with great opportunities and a 

 careful observation of facts, sound judgment and logical habits of 

 mind. We have here in the compass of five and forty pages, the sub- 

 stance of volumes, and the means, with careful study and reflection, of 

 laying a good foundation for the highest botanical acquirements. So 

 clear and accurate is our author's language, that he seems independent 

 of pictorial illustrations, and much as these seem sometimes to assist 

 beginners, they are so apt to be misused for saving labour which ou^-ht 

 to be gone through, that if they were confined to the lecture-room of 

 the teacher, the loss to science would not be great. So very much do 

 we admire Mr. Bentham's work, that we reluctantly notice faults, 

 though of secondary importance, and detracting little from the general 

 merit. At p. 18, ^ 100, he says : "The Corolla is said to be Mono- 

 petalous when the petals are united, either entirely or at the base only, 

 into a cup, tube, or ring ; pohjpetalons where they are all free from 

 the base. These expressions, established by a long usage, are not 

 strictly correct, for monoj>etalous (consisting of a single petal,) should 

 apply rather to a corolla really reduced to a single petal, which would 

 then be on one side of the axis ; and 'pohjpetalmis is sometimes used 

 more appropriately for a corolla with an indefinite number of petals. 

 Some modern botanists have, therefore, proposed the term gamopeta- 

 lous for the corolla with united petals, and diahjpetalousiox that with 

 free petals ; but the old established expressions are still most generally 

 used." 



We apprehend it to be a proper aim of writers like Mr. Bentham, 



