JrIooher''s Icones Plantarum. f6T 



only exist by the abortion of those which ought to complete the verticil, or 

 spire, or by the union of several. 



" 46th. The fruit is formed by the Carpels, which may be free, or cohere 

 together, or adhere to neighbouring parts. 



" 47th. As the two margins of each carpellary leaf can bear ovules, the 

 solitariness of the seed in a carpel, free or united to others, can only result 

 from an abortion. 



" 48th. The embryo must be considered as the developement, by fecundation, 

 of a germ situated at the extremity of one of the lateral fibres of the carpel- 

 lary leaf 



" 49th. Cryptogamous plants present, in their organisation, only partial indi- 

 cations of symmetry, which, in the present state of the science, are not suffi- 

 cient to enable us to recognise the laws. We cannot affirm, particularly, 

 whether there is fecundation in all Cryptogamous plants, or whether several 

 are not reproduced by unfecundated germs." 



Art. III. Icones Plantarum ; or. Figures, tuilh hriej" descriptive 

 Characters and Remarks, of netv or rare Playits selected from the 

 Author^ s Herbarium. By Sir Willlani Jackson Hooker, K.H., LL.D., 

 &c. Part VI. 8vo, 48 plates. London, 1840. 



We hail, with much satisfaction, the continuation of a work 

 that is likely to add so much to our botanical information, and 

 thank the author for hi.'^ liberality in opening to us the treasures 

 of his unrivalled herbarium ; making us not only acquainted 

 with the more rare and curious plants, but, by exhibiting some 

 of the most showy of these novelties, exciting in all naturalists 

 and amateurs a desire of adding them to their collections. The 

 plates, which are numerous, are got up in a very superior style ; 

 and the accurac}' of the botanical details cannot for a moment 

 be doubted. Those which will probably prove hardy ligneous 

 species are but two : viz. 1. Ceanothus papillosus Tor. et Gr., a 

 native of California ; " a very distinct and well-marked species, 

 with blue flowers, abounding in resinous exudations, which emit 

 a fragrant smell ; " and which will, no doubt, when introduced, 

 be a formidable rival to the much admired Ceanothus azureus. 

 2. ^mygdalus glandulosa, a native of Texas, and remarkable for 

 its " very downy foliage and calyx," and for " the glands which 

 terminate every one of the serratures in the obtuse apex to the 

 leaves." The great value of the v^mygdalese in our gardens 

 will repay all the trouble incurred in introducing new and dis- 

 tinct species, decking, as they do, the path of spring with lovely 

 and cheerful blossoms. 



The other ligneous species described are about nine ; many 

 of which will, no doubt, in a few years, lend their aid to beau- 

 tify our green-houses and conservative walls. One of the hand- 

 somest is Hibbertm virgata; a small shrub, "with the branches 

 attenuate and virgate, densely clothed with fascicles of leaves, not 

 inaptly resembling those of the larch. The flowers large and 



