Bibliography. 38S 



early suggested by Mr. Ward, and has been tested and confirmed by 

 extensive experience ; as appears from the instances related in the text, 

 and the testimonials of Loddiges, Hooker, Lindley, Smith, Graham, 

 &c. given in the appendix. As we have not sufficient space for the 

 details of these experiments, we can only state the general results, 

 which are, that plants from South America, Australia, India, &c. expo- 

 sed during the voyage to temperatures varying from 20° to 120° Fahr. 

 have almost uniformly reached England in a healthy condition, when- 

 ever the directions of the inventor have been faithfully attended to : 

 viz. when the plants were not over- watered when packed up ; the cases 

 well closed ; the glazed roof protected with strong wire-guard ; or 

 the panes accidentally broken immediately replaced ; and the plants, 

 thus protected from the spray of the sea, fully exposed to the light of 

 day. The latter precaution is all-important ; for, as Mr. Loddiges re- 

 marks, there cannot be a woi'se method of sending living plants than in 

 these same cases placed in the dark. 



Did our limits allow of further extracts from this little treatise, we 

 would fain notice the hints which our author throws out for the illustra- 

 tion of vegetable physiology and pathology, on the importance of light 

 in the animal economy, of pure air in the treatment of diseases and of 

 the mode of obtaining it, and, above all, his kind attempts (worthy the 

 true lover of Nature) to diffuse the enjoyments which his discovery af- 

 fords him among the poorest classes of dark and crowded cities, " the 

 most unfurnished with the means of life," many of whom, either from 

 early associations, or from that love of Nature which exists to a greater 

 or less degree in the bosom of us all, are passionately fond of flowers, 

 and endeavor to gratify their taste at no small toil. 



7. Hooker''s London Journal of Botany. — Besides the continuation 

 of Mr. J. Smith's paper on the arrangement and definition of the gen- 

 era of Ferns, (which we have previously noticed,) the August number 

 of this well-sustained periodical comprises a short article by E. Tuck- 

 erman, Jr. on the Empetrum Conradii^ Torr., which, having been es- 

 tablished by Dr. Klotzsch, of Berlin, as a separate genus under the 

 pre-occupied name of Tuckermannia, Mr. Tuckerman has with pecu- 

 liar propriety given it the name of Oakesia ; thus paying a deserved 

 compliment to Mr. Oakes of Ipswich, Mass., one of the discoverers of 

 this interesting plant within the limits of that state, and " whose name 

 is inseparably connected with the New England flora." Dr. Torrey 

 was led to suggest the probability of the existence of this plant in New- 

 foundland from the enumeration of a second species of Empetrum by 

 Pylaie, in his catalogue of the plants collected in that island ; and the 

 fact has recently been confirmed by Mr. Tuckerman, who examined a 



Vol. xLiii, No. 2.— July-Sept. 1842. 49 



