DeCandolle's Vegetable Organogra-phy. \q% 



Art. II. Vegetable Organography^ ; or an analytical Description of 

 the Organs of Plants. By M. A. P. DeCandolle. Translated by 

 Boughton Kingdon. Forming 2 vols. 8vo, with numerous plates. 

 Part XI. and last. 



We have strongly recommended this work from time to time, 

 and we have now to congratulate Mr. Kingdon on having brought 

 it to a conclusion. The instruction and pleasure which he must 

 have experienced in translating it will be an ample compensation 

 to him in one sense ; and we hope the book which he has pro- 

 duced will also be successful in a business point of view. Whether 

 it is so or not, the public are greatly indebted to Mr. Kingdon 

 for the courage he has shown in undertaking the translation, 

 and the able and judicious manner in which it is executed. Of 

 the merit of the work itself, it would be superfluous to speak. 

 The extensive views and enlightened generalisations of the author 

 meet the eye in every page, and carry us along in such a manner, 

 that no person taking up the book would wish, if possible, to 

 lay it down till he had read it through. What is delightful in 

 this, and in all M. DeCandolle's other works, is, that, while he is 

 developing new and original views, and pointing out in what these 

 views differ from those of preceding botanists, he never once 

 deviates in the slightest degree from an exalted tone of liberality 

 and good feeling. No opinions held by others are condemned 

 as absurd, or wondered at for their inaccuracy ; but all are treated 

 with the same philosophical spirit as if they were merely so 

 many appearances or phenomena in plants or animals. How 

 different this moral spirit from that of some botanical authors, 

 living and dead ! 



As a specimen of the work, we wish we could quote the chap- 

 ter on vegetable symmetry, but it is too long, and we therefore 

 give the last chapter of the second volume, which contains a 



GENERAL SUMMARY OF THE STRUCTURE OF PLANTS. 



" 1st. A plant is an organised and living being, devoid of voluntary motion, 

 having neither nerves, muscles, nor a central cavity resembling a stomach, and 

 always, or nearly always, attached to the soil from which it draws its nourish- 

 ment. 



" 2d. Plants are either wholly, or in a great measure, composed of mem- 

 branous Cellules, closed on all sides, more or less united together, and enclosed, 

 at least in their young state, in a membranous cuticle. Those which are en- 

 tirely thus formed bear the name of Cellular Plants. 



" 3d. Those which are thus formed in part, and which are called Vascular 

 Plants, present, besides the cellules, cylindrical tubes which are called Vessels ; 

 these are never naked, but always surrounded by cellules. 



" 4th. In vascular plants we observe moreover : — 1st, that the cellules 

 and vessels are united in very different degrees, so as frequently to leave 

 between them empty spaces, called Intercellular Passages ; 2d, that besides 

 the purely membranous vessels, there are bodies rolled spirally, and endowed 

 with great elasticity, which are called TrachejE; 3d, that their cuticle is 

 pierced (at least in almost every part exposed to the air) with pores or 

 Stomata, which appear to be evaporating organs. 



