90 Botanical Periodicals. 



that it will be finished in a definite period, and for a definite price; 

 and that it will form a volume, the mere turning over of which 

 on the drawingroom table will render even those who have no 

 garden familiar with the flowers in most general cultivation in 

 the gardens of their friends. As a drawing-book for young 

 ladies to copy from, the work is unrivalled. 



Art. III. The Botanical Periodicals. 



Within these few years a change has been effected in our 

 botanical periodicals, which was first begun by Mr. Maund. We 

 allude to the additional matter, of a miscellaneous nature, now 

 given at the end, and in one instance, at both the end and the 

 beginning, of the monthly numbers of these works. Thus, in 

 Maund's Botanic Garden, we have at the end, the Auctarium ; 

 in his Botanist, large paper edition, we have at the beginning of 

 each number a leaf of a Guide or Introduction to Botany ; and 

 at the end, a leaf of a Dictionary or Glossary of botanic terms, 

 both written, as it is understood, by Professor Henslow. In the 

 Floral Cabinet, we have, at the end of each number, an enume- 

 ration of the plants figured in the Botanical Magazine and the 

 Botanical Register; and in addition, three or four pages of 

 articles on culture, or on vegetable physiology. In Paxton's 

 Magazine of Botany, we have at the end of each nnmber similar 

 lists and articles. With the Botanical Magazine, we had, till 

 lately, the Companion, which was an excellent collection of 

 botanical papers of popular and scientific interest ; and, lastly, we 

 have had, since the commencement of 1838, an Appendix to the 

 Botanical Register, consisting, for the last year, of short descrip- 

 tions of no fewer than 183 plants, the greater part of which are 

 new. The Botanical Register for the present year has the plan 

 of its appendix enlarged, and entitled a Monthly Chronicle of 

 Botanical and Horticultural News. In this Monthly Chronicle, 

 besides short descriptions of new plants, there are Reviews of 

 Books, and extracts from scarce and valuable printed papers. 



The effect of all these additions to the plates and descriptions, 

 which hitherto constituted the whole matter of the botanical 

 periodicals, is to render them more interesting, on account of 

 their containing a greater quantity of readable matter,* and 

 in this point of view they must tend greatly to spread 

 botanical and horticultural knowledge and taste. The only 

 botanical periodical at present that is without one of these ap- 

 pendixes is the Botanical Magazine; and one object that we 

 have in view in this notice is, if possible, to induce Dr. Hooker 

 to recommence his Companion, in order, as it were, to render 

 that father of the botanical periodicals on a par in point of popu- 

 larity with its offspring. As all these appendixes are paged 

 separately from the plates and their descriptions, they are calcu- 



