204 Notices of Recent and 



7. Conversations on Vegetable Physiology, comprehending the 

 Elements of Botany, ivith their application to Agriculture. By the 

 Author of Conversations on Chemistry, " Natural Philos- 

 ophy," Uc. he. ; with copperplate engravings : 8vo. — New York, 

 G. &£ C. & H. Carvill. 1830; with remarks on vegetable Physiol- 

 ogy, he. (Communicated.) 



Whatever may be the fact with regard to elementary treatises and 

 vade-mecums in other branches of Natural History, Botany, (at least 

 since the publication of Nuttall's Introduction, the Lectures of 

 Mrs. Lincoln and the present unpretending work,*) is so well supplied 

 with these, as to leave little if any thing farther to wish for : and no 

 obstacle whatever, can any longer be said to be in the way of those 

 who may desire an easy acquisition of the essential principles of this 

 science. 



The author of this familiar treatise, who was before distinguished for 

 her skill in presenting chemistry and natural philosophy, in a form so 

 familiar as to be intelligible to all classes of readers, and so accurate as 

 to be employed for text books in schools and academies, has lost 

 nothing of her tact in the illlustration of botany. The little flip- 

 pancies which sometimes occur in the dialogue, are scarcely entitled 

 to a harsh remark, although they are not in good taste, and mar the 

 dignity of a grave " Conversation." 



Classification, formerly almost the sole object of the science, in her 

 hands takes a subordinate place, while she unfolds the natural phi- 

 losophy of vegetation. With considerate deference, she assigns the 

 Linnean classes and orders their proper rank, as an important fea- 

 ture, and not the essence of botany. The natural method as sug- 

 gested by Jussieu, and developed by De Candolle, is that adopted 

 by the author. She remarks, that " De Candolle, so far from con- 

 fining himself to the classification of plants, examines the vegetable 

 kingdom in its most comprehensive and philosophic point of view. 

 In describing the structure, he investigates the habits and properties 

 of plants, and shows not only how wonderfully they have been form- 

 ed to answer the purpose of their own multiplication and preserva- 

 tion, but how admirably they answer the higher purposes of minis- 

 tering to the welfare of a superior order of beings — the animal crea- 

 tion ; and more especially to that of man." This method discloses 



* Which deserves additional leconimendation, from the fact, that it piofesses to 

 have dryvvu its facts and opinions " almost exclusively from the lectures of a dis- 

 iinguishcd frofessor at Geneva." 



