712 Hooker's Botanical Miscellany. 



really underrate this work, and do it an injustice, if we leave 

 ourselves understood that it only acquaints us with those 295 

 plants, of which figures have been given : it contains, besides, 

 some lengthy contributions to systematic botany of great 

 value. This has happened in this wise. Dr. Wallich, on 

 visiting Europe, brought with him, in addition to original 

 drawings, stores of specimens ; and these, the latter at least, 

 have been distributed to the botanists of Europe, according 

 to the natural families with which they were severally known 

 to be best acquainted. The result has been a greater degree 

 of accuracy, and a richer effusion of information, under each 

 species, than could have arisen, had the authorship of the work 

 been vested in any one person, however eminent. Besides the 

 valuable descriptions proper to the species illustrated, there 

 are the following still more useful communications. A mono- 

 graph, in the second volume, on the Z.aurinae of the East 

 Indies, to which there is a supplement in the third volume, 

 both by Professor Nees von Esenbeck. This occupies 22 

 pages, and developes the most complete account of the order 

 any where extant ; and gives a digest, and the characters, of 

 the genera and species which range under it. Professor Nees 

 also elaborates, in the same manner, in the third volume, the 

 ordinal, generic, and specific characteristics of those lovely 

 plants the Indian ^canthaceae ; and this valuable elucidation 

 of this family occupies 48 pages. Professor Meisner, also, in 

 the third volume, presents a synopsis of those plants of the 

 natural order Polygoneae, which belong to British India, so far 

 as specimens of them exist in the vast herbarium which has 

 been collected under the direction of the East India Company, 

 and by them recently presented to the Linnaean Society of 

 London ; an act of munificence which does honour to the 

 Company. In vol. iii. p. 27., Professor Martius, too, elabo- 

 rates the characters of the Indian Eriocauleae and JXyrideae. 



Hooker> W. J., LL.D. : The Botanical Miscellany ; contain- 

 ing Figures and Descriptions of such Plants as recommend 

 themselves by their Novelty, Rarity, or History, or by the 

 Uses to which they are applied. 8vo. London, 1832. In 

 quarterly parts, 10s. 6d. each. 



Part viii. of this work was published on the 1st of August 

 last, and contains the following papers : — 1. " Contributions 

 towards a Flora of South America, and the islands of the 

 Pacific. By Dr. Hooker and G. A. W. Arnott, Esq. A.M. 

 F.R.S. &c." This paper occupies 83 pages, and is to be 

 continued in a future number. It enumerates 384 species 

 of plants, specimens of which have been received from 



