Herbert'' s Amarylliddcece. 273 



connected, that extracts would only impair their force and im- 

 portance ; and, therefore, they must be consulted in full. 



The work is divided into three sections : a preliminary 

 treatise, a new arrangement of the Amaryllio'ace'^, and a trea- 

 tise on cross-bred vegetables; with a supplement and glossary; 

 illustrated by forty-eight coloured plates of plants and parts of 

 plants treated of in the body of the work, with elaborate dis- 

 sections of the different parts of the inflorescence, Sec, illus- 

 trative of the simplicity and importance of the author's new 

 arrangement ; which is a regular series of divisions and sub- 

 divisions, &c., of the different alliances of the Amarylli<7aVe<^ ; 

 each division being separated from its next alliance by a simple 

 fact, " the most obvious and ready to ascertain that could be 

 found," in accordance with what has been already advanced : 

 the whole being " intended to enable any person, however 

 little skilled in botany, to ascertain easily to what order any 

 monocotyledonous plant before him belongs." There is a 

 leading feature in this portion of the work, which cannot be too 

 highly praised; and, indeed, this part of the work is a perfect 

 encyclopaedia as far as the AmwryWiddcece are concerned. In- 

 stead of exhausting the reader's patience with a long series of 

 dry technicalities, inseparable from botanical descriptions, we 

 have, at the termination of every section or family treated of, a 

 popular and comprehensive digest of culture; botanical, geo- 

 graphical, or historical facts, &c. ; in short, every thing bearing 

 on the subject in hand. This enables the reader to get over dry 

 technicalities imperceptibly, and is an inviting guide, which 

 keeps up the interest to the end of the journey. A fair example 

 of this portion of the work, and of the author's style, may be 

 gathered from the following extract, taken incidentally from 

 under a well-known hardy bulbous plant, Zephyranthes Can- 

 dida: — 



" This plant, conspicuous by its fleshy, semicylindrical, and rush-like leaves, 

 which resist the severest frost of our usual winters, has ripened its seeds with 

 me after snow had lain upon them for three weeks. I have seen the quick- 

 silver 15° below the freezing point (Fahren.), without its losing more than the 

 ends of its leaves. I have not been able to ascertain that it is indigenous in 

 the west of South America, though abundant in old gardens in the valley of 

 Lima. There is no difference in the hardiness of the constitution of the bulbs 

 from Lima and those from Buenos Ayres, where the banks of the Plata are 

 so covered with it, that it is understood that the river was called La Plata 

 (meaning silver) on account of the profusion of its white blossom on the shore. 

 I have had seventy flowers expanded at once, on a small patch of the plant, 

 at Spofforth. It is strange that this plant, which thrives in the hot valley of 

 Lima, should have stood out of doors here nine or ten years unprotected, 

 without ever losing its leaves entirely. Perhaps the strong current of air 

 which must accompany the rush of such a great body of water as the Plata, 

 and the evaporation from it, occasions a degree of cold on its immediate 

 banks which the latitude would not otherwise admit. There is, however, a 

 mystery in the constitution of plants, which' does not always depend upon 

 their native climate. I raised two species of Gesneria from accidental seeds 



Vol. XIIL — No. 87. t 



