i2S0 Dr. Hooker on American Botany. 



author,) bids fair to rank arnonsj the most valuable that has 

 appeared in that country ; the Flora of the Middle and North- 

 ern Sections of the United States, by Dr. Torrey. A frequent 

 correspondence, and a mutual interchange of botanical speci- 

 mens, have made us acquainted with the zeal and acquire- 

 ments of this gentleman ; both of which are now assiduously 

 engaged in the preparation of his work, the continuation of 

 which we anxiously expect. No. I. extends as far as, but 

 not to the conclusion of, the Class Triandria, and Order Di- 

 gynia ; for here likewise the arrangement is that of Linnaeus. 

 The whole is in English. The synonyms are sufficiently co- 

 pious, and the descriptive part contains much useful criticism 

 and observation. We know, too, that Dr. Torrey has made 

 a most ample collection of the cryptogamic plants of the 

 United States ; that he is well acquainted with the species 

 and their characters; and we may therefore confidently hope 

 that this department of botany will now find a place in the 

 Floras of ]Vorth America. 



Our attention has hitherto been almost exclusively turned 

 to the progress of botany in the United States. There is 

 still a vast'extent of highly interesting country to the north- 

 ward, from the 45th parallel of lat. to 74, including 29 de- 

 grees, and to the westward, which, as being for the most part 

 either in the acknowledged possession of the British govern- 

 ment, or of the Hudson's Bay Company, or what has been 

 explored by British enterprise, we shall denominate the Bri- 

 tish possessions in North America. 



Small, indeed, compared to the extent of the country, is 

 the amount of what has been published exclusively on the 

 plants of these regions. We may, we believe, sum up the 

 whole in the mention of the Botanical Appendix to Captain 

 Franklin's Narrative, and those to the various recent Arctic 

 Voyages of Discovery, among which the observations of our 

 countryman. Brown, have given an additional interest to the 

 subject, besides a small paper upon some new and rare Ca- 

 nadian plants, gathered by Mr. Goldie during an excursion of 

 some extent in that country, which was printed in the Edin- 

 burgh Philosophical Journal. Unless we indeed extend our 

 remarks to Greenland, of which country a list of the plants 

 has been printed by Sir Charles Giesecke, in the Edinburgh 

 Encyclopcedia, art. Greenland, and otherspecies are include4^ 

 m fhe Flora JDaniffi of Professor Hornemann. 



