560 Catalogue of Works on Gardening, S^c 



The Florisfs Guide ; containing 2^>'actical Directions for tlie Cultivation of Amiual, 

 Biennial, and Perennial Floiuering Plants of Different Classes, Sfc. Sfc. Third 

 edition, enlarged and improved. By T. Bridgeman, Gardener, Seedsman, 

 and Florist, New York. 8vo, pp. 180. New York, 1840, 

 The appearance of these three works, and the numerous agricultural and 

 gardening newspapers now publishing in America, show the rapid progress 

 which the arts ot" culture are making in that extensive country. Mr. Bridge- 

 man's Young Gardener^ Assistant is noticed in our Vol. XII. p. 193., and we 

 observe tiiat in a separate pamphlet he has published some extracts from the 

 eighth edition of that work, which, though far from being new, yet appear to 

 us of considerable interest, both in America and England, from the doctrine 

 which they contain. This doctrine is, that the grand cause why fruit trees, 

 and especially peach trees, are not so productive as they ought to be, is the 

 result of their being too deeply planted. This secret was lately offered to the 

 congress for a million of dollars, and Mr. Bridgeman says that he had anti- 

 cipated it in the work referred to, and, as a proof of this, he publishes the 

 extracts. The soil in America, he observes, is light ; and the trees when planted 

 in it, if not staked, are apt to be blown aside, or even blown out of the soil, 

 by high winds. Hence, to avoid the trouble and expense of staking, they are 

 planted deeper in the soil, which is the cause of unfruitfulness and disease 

 in all trees, more especially in the peach. He repeats that this deep 

 planting is practised not only with fruit trees in America, but with all trees 

 whatever. 



A Manual of Botany, con^msing Vegetable Anatomy and Physiology, or the 

 Structure and Functions of Plants. By W. Macgillivray, A.M., &c. 8vo, 

 pp. 272, 16 plates. London, 1840. 



This is one of a series of Manuals by an experienced and judicious author, 

 who possesses a scientific as well as practical knowledge of the subjects on 

 which he treats. The work has every appearance of having been prepared 

 with great care and labour, and the steel plates are very neatly executed, 

 though we should greatly have preferred them done on wood,and printed along 

 with the text. 



The Grammar of Botany. By G. Francis, F.L.S. 12mo, pp. 160, many wood 

 cuts. London, 1840. Price 4^. 



Of all the different miniature introductions to botany which have yet been 

 published, this by Mr. Francis is, in our opinion, decidedly the best. It em- 

 braces as much as books of six times the size have attempted, and it explains 

 the subject more clearly than these books and much more concisely, by means 

 of woodcuts. It not only defines all the parts of plants, and all the principal 

 terms used in botanical description, but it gives definitions and engravings of 

 the flowers and fruit of forty-two natural orders of flowering plants, and of 

 seven orders of Cryptogamia. We have often recommended introductions to 

 botany to young gardeners, and many of these have been very excellent pro- 

 ductions, every one vieing with another in keeping pace with the progress of 

 the age, but Mr. Francis's little work surpasses them all. We have not 

 only to recommend this work to young gardeners, but to young amateurs of 

 both sexes. That the author had in view its suitableness for ladies, is 

 obvious from the following passage in his preface. 



" Two remarks it is necessary to make on the language employed through- 

 out. One is, that the greatest siraplicit}' has invariably been aimed at, parti- 

 cularly in the scientific names and words ; and although the author has not 

 fallen in this respect behind the spirit of the age, yet he has certainly not 

 added to the pruriency of it by new terms or new hypotheses, leaving such 

 recondite matters to those who have more judgment than himself." 



The second remark is this : — " The author has often had it objected to 

 him, that botany is not adapted to young females, nor can it be introduced 

 as a general subject of study in schools, because authors, in iheir introductory 



