Systematic Botany. 161 



the science towards perfection has amply justified the patron- 

 age it has received. 



Having premised thus much, we now come to a consider- 

 ation of the work before us. Professor Sprengel has long 

 been known as a botanist, more deeply learned in the litera- 

 ture of the science than any person living. His Historia Rei 

 Herbariae, one of the most useful and excellent works the 

 world ever saw, has proved him to be an accomplished 

 scholar and judicious critic. Indeed, the learning and 

 acumen displayed in that curious production, have rarely 

 been equalled in any branch of literature. It is owing, 

 perhaps, to this particular direction of his studies, that Pro- 

 fessor Sprengel's reputation as a philosophical botanist has 

 not kept pace with his celebrity as a scholar. While the 

 work to which we have alluded, and some similar subjects of 

 antiquarian research have given him a claim to the very highest 

 place in the class of critical botanists, it cannot be concealed 

 that his Introduction to Botany, and to the Study of Cryp- 

 togamous Plants, have hitherto fixed him in a much lower 

 rank among practical and philosophical botanists; a rank 

 from which neither his labours upon Umbelliferae, nor the 

 work under consideration, are, we feel bound to say, cal- 

 culated to elevate him. 



We are fully sensible how important are any attempts to ex- 

 tricate botany from the disorder by which it is now embarrassed, 

 and we admit, most willingly, that the world is obliged by 

 almost any attempts to bring the contents of the innumerable 

 botanical works which have appeared within the last fifteen 

 years into one view. Even the abortion of Rbmer and 

 Schultes was in some degree useful; and the unpretending- 

 nomenclature of Dr. Steudel is of the utmost value ; but when 

 we place the work of Professor Sprengel by the side of De 

 Candolle's Prodromus, the difference is too striking to allow 

 us to overlook it. 



The difficulties of any undertaking of the kind have now, 

 however, become so great, that the utmost indulgence must 

 be shown to any work possessing one half only of the merits 

 of Professor Sprengel's. It is, indeed, delightful to see a 

 man, fast hastening into the vale of years, and upon whose 

 head the suns of more than sixty summers have already shone, 

 boldly undertaking a labour which appears too mighty to be 

 accomplished in the longest life. 



{To be continued.) 



