390 Lindley' s Ladies' Botany. 



REVIEWS. 



Art. I. Ladies' Botany ; or, a Familiar Introduction to the Study of the Na- 

 tural System of Botany. By John Lindley, Ph.D. F.R.S. &c. &c. &c; 

 Professor of Botany in the University of London. 8vo, 302 pages, 25 

 plates. London, 1834>. 16*. plain, 1/. Is. coloured. 



We look upon this work as one which will do more towards rendering the 

 study of botany popular, than any other which has appeared since botany be- 

 came a science. Dr. Lindley has here done what, in 1825, we proposed for 

 him to do in the Natural Arrangement Division of our Encyclopedia of Plants, 

 It would, however, have occupied too much room in that work. 



The difference between this popular introduction to botany and all the other 

 popular introductions which have preceded it is, that Dr. Lindley's object is to 

 make the reader acquainted with the nature of plants, while all the others at- 

 tempt little more than endeavouring to teach the pupil how to find out their 

 names. " All seem curious," Dr. Lindley observes, " to know something of the 

 natural system, and many, no doubt, take infinite pains to understand it; but 

 it is to be feared that a large portion of those who make the attempt are far 

 from meeting with the success their industry deserves. On all hands they 

 are told of its difficulties ; books, instead of removing those difficulties, only 

 perplex the readers by multitudes of unknown words, and by allusions which, 

 however clear they may be to the experienced botanist, are anything rather 

 than illustrative in the eyes of a beginner, who is often fairly lost in a laby- 

 rinth of resemblances, differences, and exceptions. The cause of this lies not 

 in the science itself, so much as in the books that are written concerning it. 

 Since the appearance of my Introduction to the Natural System of Botany, in 

 1830, several works of great merit have been published on the same subject 

 both in this country and abroad ; so that the student is abundantly supplied 

 with guides.; and, if his object be to understand it, as an important branch of 

 natural science, they are sufficiently well adapted to his purpose ; but, for those 

 who would become acquainted with botany as an amusement and a relaxation, 

 these works are far too difficult. Treating the subject, as they do, in great 

 detail, and without consideration for the unlearned reader, the language, the 

 arguments, and the illustrations employed in them, must be unintelligible to 

 those who have no previous acquaintance with botany. The characters of 

 the natural groups ororders, into which the vegetable kingdom is divided, are 

 not, as a whole, susceptible of such an analysis as a young student is capable 

 of following; and I can quite understand how the whole system may .appear 

 to be an unintelligible mass of confusion. It has therefore occurred to me, 

 that if, without sacrificing science, the subject could be divested of the many 

 real, and of the still greater number of imaginary, difficulties that frighten 

 students ; and if they could be taught to recognise the natural tribes of plants, 

 not by mere technical characters, but by those simple marks of which the 

 practised botanist exclusively makes use, a work in which such objects are 

 attained might be found of some utility." (p. 5.) 



The Ladies' Botany consists of twenty-five letters, each letter being illus- 

 trated by a copperplate engraving of the size of the page. The subject of 

 each letter is one, two, or more of the natural orders. The engravings are 

 all of plants common either in the fields or in the ordinary gardens of Bri- 

 tain; and there is scarcely one of them that may not be easily procured by 

 any person residing in the country. 



We consider it quite needless to recommend this work; it must find its 

 way into the library of every lady; and it ought to be in the coat pocket of 

 every young gardener. In its present form, however, it is too expensive for 

 the last class of readers ; for whom we would strongly recommend an edition 

 with the engravings done on wood. Such an edition might very well be sold 



