Bibliography. 365 



Art. XIII. — Bibliographical Notices. 



1. A Discourse on the character^ properties, and importance to man, 

 of the natural family of plants called GraminecE or True Grasses ; 

 delivered as a lecture before the Chester County Calinet of Natural 

 Science, Feb. 19th, 1841 ; i?/ Williabi Darlington, M. D. — The Cliester 

 County Cabinet of Natural Science, an institution of which the town 

 of West Chester may well be proud, has, in addition to a regular course 

 of public lectures on chemistry, astronomy, natural philosophy, &c., 

 for the last year or two provided a series of extra discourses on mis- 

 cellaneous topics of science and literature, several members of the so- 

 ciety delivering each one or more lectures upon any subject they 

 may deem sufficiently interesting or instructive. On a previous occa- 

 sion, viz. in the course for the winter of 1839, Dr. Darlington chose 

 for his theme, the theory of the development and transformation of the 

 external organs of plants, as propounded by Wolf and Gcethe, and 

 now constituting as integral a part of the science of botany, as the 

 atomic theory does of a sister science. This interesting discourse upon 

 a somewhat novel subject for a popular audience, as well as the recent 

 lecture now under notice, has been printed in the pamphlet form, 

 for private distribution. Premising that the subject may be found to 

 possess a degree of general interest, in a district so distinguished for 

 its agricultural advancement, Dr. Darlington first defines what a grass 

 is ; remarking, that " the term grass, in our vernacular tongue, is fre- 

 quently used in a vague sense, to designate every kind of herbage 

 found in our meadows and pastures ; hence, we often hear people 

 speak of clover, lucerne, and other plants — which have no botanical 

 affinity whatever with true grasses — as though they really belonged to 

 that remarkable tribe of vegetables. But such is not the language of 

 naturalists, and ought not to be of any well-informed person. An ac- 

 curate knowledge of objects can neither be acquired nor communicated 

 without precision in the use of terms." .... " Having thus hastily glanced 

 at some of the more striking features of the extensive tribe technically 

 denominated grasses, and the characters by which they are distin- 

 o-uished from other plants, I flatter myself we shall have no difficulty 

 in recognizing any member of that family which may hereafter come 

 in our way. It will be no news, indeed, to any of us,* to be told that 

 red-top, Timothy, and fox-tail, are grasses ; and we all, perhaps, may 

 be aware that our cultivated oats, barley, wheat and rye, and even 

 rice, belong to the same categoiy. But the fact may not be equally 

 familiar to every one, that our Indian corn, and broom corn, the sugar 

 cane, and the bamboo, arc also true and genuine grasses. Much as 



