Loudon's Hortus Britannicus. 579 



found that the latter would be almost as bulky as the body of the work. 

 Rather than submit such a work to the public, the editor proposed to the 

 proprietors, that, if they would consent to sustain the loss of breaking up 

 the stereotype plates of the first edition, he would superintend a new edi- 

 tion gratuitously. Mr. George Don undertook the Linnean Arrangement of 

 this improved edition, at a price far below its value ; and Professor Lindley 

 and Dr. Greville gave their services gratis. In reflecting how the most 

 could be made of a new edition, the happy idea occurred to the editor of 

 giving literal translations of the specific names, and the etymologies of the 

 generic names. From this improvement alone an interest is given to the 

 science of botany that ordinary botanists could scarcely have imagined. 

 Those scientific names hitherto of unknown meaning to all who were not 

 classical scholars, or profound botanical students, will henceforth present 

 to the mind of the humblest English reader a biography or a history, and 

 often both. It would be affectation in us to deny that we think this cir- 

 cumstance and others render our catalogue one of the most important 

 presents hitherto made to the practical gardener. 



We are happy, notwithstanding the immense sacrifice of time and labour 

 which it has cost us, to have been the means of placing~such a work within 

 then' reach. Without meaning to depreciate any other catalogue whatever^ 

 we certainly consider this one by far the most perfect work of the kind; and 

 the gardener who does not possess it can never pretend to much either in 

 the way of scientific or practical botany. The Natural Arrangement alone 

 is worth the price of the work. We have given our reasons (Vol. I. p. 435.) 

 for giving the species under the Linnean Arrangement rather than under 

 the Jussieuean : to these reasons we still adhere ; but, fortunately for such 

 as may differ from us in opinion on this point, there is the Hortus Britan- 

 nicus of Mr. Sweet, the second edition of which will be ready by the time 

 this notice is published, in which the species are given under the Jussieuean 

 system. These two catalogues do not at all interfere with each other ; and 

 whoever can afford it ought to possess them both. The following extracts 

 from our preface indicate the principal points of difference between the 

 books : — 



" Short introductions are given [in Loudon's Hortus Britannicus] to the 

 Linnean and Jussieuean systems, illustrated by engravings ; and this circum- 

 stance, together with the important one of all, the specific names being 

 literally translated, will, by giving the meaning of almost all the terms used 

 in botanical description, in a great measure supersede the necessity of a 

 grammar of botany to the young gardener. The literal translation of the 

 specific names may be considered as, to a certain extent, teaching him the 

 Latin language ; and the etymologies of the generic names will give him the 

 meaning of an immense number of Greek words. The species of every 

 genus, where numerous, are subdivided into sections and subsections, 

 which are shortly defined by specific characters ; and so copious are the 

 descriptive particulars after each species, that we will venture to assert that, 

 the genus to which any plant belongs being known, the specific name, in a 

 majority of cases, may be discovered by this catalogue without the aid of a 

 Species Plantdrum. 



" In the popular descriptions of the Natural Orders, the medicinal proper- 

 ties and economical uses are slightly noticed ; and the soil, propagation, and 

 general treatment of the different groups indicated ; so that this part of the 

 work, in our opinion the most valuable collection of botanical facts that has 

 ever been brought into so small a space, may be considered an epitome of 

 the history, uses, and culture of the whole vegetable kingdom. Whoever 

 has a sufficient theoretical and practical knowledge of plants and of vege- 

 table culture to generalise on these subjects, will find, in this Natural 

 Arrangement, the rudiments of every thing that can be said or written on 

 botany, gardening, and agriculture. 



P p 2 



