20 4< Hooker 's Botanical Miscellany. 



from the Lambertian Herbarium" and that " the characters of all the 

 genera and species are derived either from the plants themselves, or from 

 the original authorities where authentic specimens could not be procured." 

 The scope and object of the book are, as its title declares, to enable us to 

 acquaint ourselves with the names of plants, their uses in medicine and in 

 domestic economy, and with the best modes of cultivating them. These are 

 delightful objects, and only inferior to the volumes of sentimental associ- 

 ations which plants are ever suggesting. They address, and irresistibly ad- 

 dress, every passion and capacity of our souls. If, however, these latter 

 considerations are by some more esteemed than the detailed technicalities, 

 and even beyond the systematic combination of those technicalities, it is 

 right to assume and assert that the former will be most sensitively felt, and 

 their force and power most fully appreciated, by those best versed in the 

 latter, which are the objects the book includes. Our inference is, then, that 

 to all who love plants, whatever be the grounds of their affection for them, 

 the book is valuable and indispensable. 



The book must and will be widely spread, and deserves to be, on every 

 account but one ; this is, its price. We think the publishers have erred in 

 naming it " A General System of Gardening; " this it is not, but rather a 

 directory on vegetable culture. We feel constrained also to remark that 

 the editor might, after Loudo?i's Hortus Britaainicus had passed through his 

 hands, have introduced, both profitably to himself and readers, the more 

 discriminative signs and characters of that work, or others equivalent to 

 them : these would have concisely expressed several minor points, which 

 now, for the sake of avoiding circumlocution, are here and there left unde- 

 termined. — J. D. 



Hooker, J. W., LL.D. F.R.A. and L.S., and Regius Professor of Botany 

 in the University of Glasgow : The Botanical Miscellany ; containing 

 Figures and Descriptions of such Plants as recommend themselves by 

 their Novelty, Rarity, or History, or by the Uses to which they are ap- 

 plied in the Arts, in Medicine, and in Domestic Economy ; together with 

 occasional Botanical Notices and Information. Illustrated by numerous 

 Engravings. London, Murray. In Quarterly 8vo Parts, 10s. 6d. each. 



Parts v. and vi. are each accompanied b} r ten coloured plates in quarto 

 additional to the usual supply of octavo plates in Part v. These twenty 

 coloured quarto plates are by Richard Wight, M.D., and are illustrative 

 of articles by him, in the Miscellany, on the botany of India, principally 

 of that of the southern parts of the peninsula, The quarto form was 

 chosen for these exquisite plates, in order to do the plants figured more 

 perfect justice, but the quarto form proving objectionable, Part vi. informs 

 us that " in future the plates illustrative of Indian botany will be published 

 in a form so as to bind up with the volume, instead of forming a separate 

 one of a larger size." 



We cannot now give any analysis of the contents of the late numbers 

 of the Botanical Miscellany, but venture to assert that it maintains the 

 character of originality which characterised the first number; and that 

 in consequence of the new and important information it imparts ; the good 

 supply of letter-press, each part averaging more than 200 pages ; and the 

 liberal supply of plates, mostly uncoloured it is true, but drawn and en- 

 graved in a style of superior excellence ; the work is, notwithstanding its 

 price, half a guinea, really a cheap one. — J. D. 



Sinclair, Sir John : Hints on Vegetation, the Agents necessary for the 

 Production of Plants, and those which are injurious or destructive to 

 them. 



This little pamphlet is a remarkable one, not so much for the inform- 

 ation it communicates, as for the republican manner and feeling in which 



