J7U Dr. Hooker on American Botany. 



Gecrgia, which lip corninenced in 1816. This is arrangef; 

 according to the liinnaBan system, having specific characters 

 both ill Latin and in Enghsh, and very copious notes and de- 

 scriptions. A work thus conducted cannot fail to !)e of great 

 importance to tlie student of American botany ; the more so, 

 since tlie author lias written from his own per.>ional observa- 

 tion, depending little upon the ossislance of others, and in a 

 capital where science has not been so much cultivated as in 

 the nortliern States. In a letter now before us, the author 

 says, "' no one in llurope can, probably, appreciate correctly 

 the diHicidty of the task in which I have engaged. The want 

 of books, ilu> want of opportunities for examining living col- 

 lections or good herbaria^ the want of coadjiitors, have al! 

 served to render my task arduous, and to multiply its imper- 

 fections." Nevertheless, there are many new species, de- 

 scribed with great care and fidelity, and the grasses, whicb 

 are accompanied with some neat plates, iiave }>articularly at- 

 tracted the author's attention. There are stiveral beautiful 

 novel species, and some newly established genera. We have 

 received of this work to the Oih No. of the 2d volume, which 

 includes so far as the class Morurcin ; and we are informed 

 by INlr. Elliott, that another number will complete the Skitch. 

 This we regret, as the work cannot thus take in the Crypto- 

 namia ; and we consider l\lr. Elliott's talent for minute de- 

 scription aduiirahly calculated for such })lants as that clas? 

 embraces. No man seems to be more strongly impressed 

 with the value of the study of natural history than Mr. Elliott. 

 "It has been, for many years," says he, '"the occupation of 

 my leisure moments ; it is a merited tribute to say, tliat it 

 has lightened for me many a heavy, and smoothed many a 

 rugged hour, that beguiled by its charms, 1 have found no 

 road rough or dilhcidt, do journey tedious, no coiuitry deso- 

 late or barren — in solitude never solitary, in a desert never 

 without employment. 1 have found it u relief from the lan- 

 guor of idleness, the pressure of business, and from the un- 

 avoidable calamities of life."* 



We come now to the agreeable employment of mentioning 

 a very important work, both on account of the extended na- 

 ture of the publication, and of the marmer in which it has been 

 executed ; we allude to the " Genera oj Xorth ^•imerican 



* See Elliott's address to the Literary and Philosophical Sociotj' of 

 South CaroHna, delivered at Charleston, and published there in 1814. 



