Curtis' s Botanical Magazine. 153 



the Glazenwood Horticultural Grounds, Essex, and Proprietor of 

 the Botanical Magazine. Vol. I. 8vo. London, 1833. 



In our Volume for 1833, we announced the intention of Mr. 

 Curtis, the proprietor of the Botanical Magazine, to publish a 

 new series of that work, with the engravings arranged according 

 to the natural system, and at a comparatively low price. It 

 was intended to appear in monthly numbers ; but it has been 

 found more convenient to bring it out in volumes; and the first 

 of these, price 2l5., is now before us. 



The work is prefaced by an outline of the natural system, by 

 Dr. Hooker, and his reasons for preferring that arrangement to 

 any other. The plates are beautifully coloured; the descriptions 

 have been amended, or re-written, by Dr. Hooker, and the modes 

 of culture given in a concise and masterly manner by Mr. Curtis. 

 "We can, therefore, strongly recommend the work, and only deeply 

 regret that some arrangement could not be formed by which the 

 possessors of this work could purchase from the proprietors of 

 the Botanical Register such plates as have appeared in that 

 work, and not in the Botanical Magazine ; and this accommo- 

 dation, we think, ought to be reciprocal. For example, there 

 are some species of magnolia figured in the Bot. Reg., that have 

 not been figured in the Bot. Mag. ; and some in the Bot. Mag. 

 that have not been figured in the Bot. Reg. Now, it would be 

 a great advantage to the possessor of either work (and we do 

 not suppose that there is any one who takes in both), if he 

 could purchase such plates from the other as he might want, 

 either to render as complete as possible his collection of figures 

 of one genus or of one natural order, or to complete his 

 collection of plates of the whole vegetable kingdom. Why 

 should not the proprietors of these and similar works sell single 

 plates, or plates by the dozen, by the score, or by the hundred, 

 charging a handsome price for a single plate, and diminishing 

 the rate per plate according to the quantity taken ? If we could 

 be the means of inducing the proprietors of botanical works to 

 do this, we think we should be rendering an essential service to 

 gardeners and botanists, more especially in remote parts of the 

 country, or in other countries ; and even to the publishers them- 

 selves. It would then be practicable for a gardener or amateur, 

 in any part of Britain, or for an amateur on the Continent, or 

 in North America, when in doubt about any particular species, 

 or the species of a genus, to obtain the plate or plates he might 

 desire to solve his doubts, by post. 



We frequently hear of disputes between gardeners in the 

 country respecting the name of a plant. Now, by such an ar- 

 rangement as that which we suggest, all such differences could 

 be settled in a post or two. 



