on Gardening and Rural Affairs. 1 95 



plan which shows nothing of the interior arrangement of the garden. In 

 short, more useless or less ornamental engravings were never appended to 

 any work. 



Cobbet, William, Esq. of Kensington, the celebrated Political Writer ; 



Author of the American Gardener. &c. : The Woodlands, or, a Treatise 



on Planting ; describing the Trees, &c. &c. London. 8vo. No. 1. 



This work proceeds on the supposition that the reader is ignorant of the 



practical details of preparing ground for planting, and of all the subsequent 



operations of sowing, rearing, &c. In so far as it goes, the operations are 



accurately described, and in a vigorous style ; and though the work will be of 



most use to the novice, it may yet be read with profit by the practical planter. 



Johns, William, M.D. formerly a Practitioner in Calcutta, now resident in 

 Manchester. Practical Botany; an improved Arrangement of the 

 Generic Characters of British Plants ; with a familiar Introduction to the 

 Linnaean System. London. Longman & Co. 1826. 12mo. pp. 156. 

 A neat little work, intended to facilitate the acquisition of a knowledge 

 of the genera of British plants, to which it will probably be found an 

 useful guide. It commences with a brief introduction to the study of 

 botany, in which the. first rudiments of the science are explained in familiar 

 terms, and illustrated by figures. The characters of the genera are ar- 

 ranged in a tabular form, so that a comparative view is offered of the most 

 important distinctions, by which they are divided. For the characters of 

 the genera of grasses, the author states, that he is indebted to the assist- 

 ance of Sir James Smith. The foot of each page is occupied by such 

 brief remarks upon the genera as are independent of their distinctive 

 characters. 



It is to be regretted, that the author has not avoided certain errors of 

 expression, which, although formerly introduced into respectable works, 

 are now abandoned as unphilosophical and incorrect. As, for example, 

 calling the grain of grasses, umbelliferse, &c. ; seed, instead of pericarpium ; 

 the involucrum of syngenesious plants common calyx ; or describing the 

 corolla of a papilionaceous plant to consist of four instead of five petals. 

 We must also remark, that the references to the figures in illustration of 

 the terms used in botany, are not sufficiently accurate. Thus, in plate ii. 

 it does not appear whether the term involucre is applied to a particular 

 form of inflorescence, or of bracteae ; it would also seem that the annulus of 

 an Agaric, tab. 2. fig. 6. is mistaken for its volva. 



The author announces his intention of preparing, in continuation of this 

 work, a similar publication upon the species of British plants. We hope 

 that in that work such errors as the above will be avoided. 



France. 



Nicolas Douette-Richardot, et re'dige par Richardot, I'aine', Juge de Paix a 

 Verry, Departement de la Marne : De la Pratique de 1' Agriculture ; 

 ouRecueil, &c. 1 vol. 8vo. Paris. 



This work is described by Lachevardiere, who has given an analysis of it, 

 as one of the most curious and useful which has ever been published on the 

 art of agriculture. It is not so much a compilation from other writers, as a 

 relation of what has been effected, either directly or indirectly, by the author 

 himself. The work is divided into three parts : the first contains the agricul- 

 tural life of the author ; the second the detail of his practices, and the ex 

 pence he incurred ; and the third displays his system of management, and 

 contains a challenge to whoever will accept of it, to come forward and dis- 

 pute the excellence of his plans. The department of the Haute-Marne is 

 the principal scene of his operations. There he drained and cultivated 

 six marshes, united eighty springs, and applied the water to the irri- 

 gation of an immense tract. He next directed his attention to the 



