270 He)-heri''s AmaryUidaeece. 



Aracece. 



*PHILODE'NDRON Lindl. TiiR Piulodenuron. (From phileo, to love, and dendron, a tree; in allusion 

 to the habit of the plants oftliis genus to overrun trees in the South American forests.) 

 •crassinervium Lindl. thick-ribbed fl_ □ c" 20 d G.W Brazil 1835 R l.p Bot. reg. 195S. 



" This is one of tlie extraordinary climbers which, in tropical 

 forests, lay hold of the trunks and limbs of trees, and fix them- 

 selves upon the bark, root on their surface, often twine round 

 or strangle them in their embrace, or sometimes hang down, like 

 cords or cables, from tree to tree, contributing, along with wild 

 vines, bauhinias, and other powerful twisting leguminous plants 

 (aristolochias, passion flowers, and the like), to render the forests 

 impassable. Pbthos crassinervia is a very different pUuit." {Bot. 

 Reg., May.) 



REVIEWS. 



Art, I. AmaryUidacece ; preceded by an Attempt to arrange the Mo- 

 nocotyledonous Orders, and Jolloxued by a Treatise on cross-bred 

 Vegetables, and Supplement. By the Hon. and Rev. W. Herbert. 

 48 plates. London, 1837. Price \l. 5s. plain, and 1/. 18*. coloured. 



[After perusing this very original and instructive work with 

 very great interest and pleasure, we sent it to our correspondent 

 Mr. Beaton, knowing that he had had much experience in the 

 subject on which it treats ; and requested him to favour us with 

 his opinion of it, which he has given in the following article.] 



The author's well-known celebrity in the botanical world, 

 but more especially his profound knowledge of the natural order 

 Amary\\iddce(S, could not fail to raise the highest expectations 

 of this work among botanists and botanical cultivators, who have 

 been looking anxiously for its appearance. A careful perusal 

 of the work itself will abundantly show that such expectations 

 were not ill-founded, as it is the most scientific, and at the same 

 time the most practical, work on this department of practical 

 botany that ever issued from the press. By practical botany, I 

 mean the labours of the cultivator, blended with the researches 

 of the botanist. Every page and suggestion is replete with 

 practical and scientific information. It not only embraces a 

 revision of the Amaryllia'a<;^<^, but a complete and radical 

 revision of the Jussieuan system of botany. This is, certainly, 

 a bold attempt, which none but a master mind, in the full con- 

 fidence of its own powers, could grapple with. Mr. Herbert 

 argues with great force of reasoning and perspicuity on the 

 insuperable defects and chaotic state of the Jussieuan system, 

 and shows the utter impossibility of any modification of it ever 

 being made subservient for the end in view ; and, also, that 

 those who apply their time and talents in clearing their way 



