634 Catalogue of Works on Gardening, §c. 



The Ladies' Companion to the Flower-Garden; being an Alphabetical Arrangement 

 of all the ornamental Plants usually grown in Gardens and Shrubberies ; with 

 full Directions for their Culture. By Mrs. Loudon. Second edition, with 

 considerable additions and corrections. 12mo, pp. 350. London, 1842. 



It may be sufficient to state of this work that it has already come to a 

 second edition, and that this edition is brought down to the present time. 

 This the author has been enabled to do in consequence of the work not being 

 stereotyped ; a practice which has led, in various instances that we could name, 

 to the deception of the public, the injury of authors, and the retardation of 

 science. We could name a work in which successive impressions of the ste- 

 reotype plates have been designated on the title page so many editions, and in 

 which even the date of the preface, as well as that of the titlepage, has 

 been altered without consulting the author. We know of no remedy for this, 

 unless it be a law to compel those who stereotype books to have that stated, 

 and the year in which it is done, on the titlepage. 



The Botanical Text- Boole for Colleges, Schools, and private Students : comprising 

 Part I. An Introduction to structural and physiological Botany. Part II. The 

 Principles of systematic Botany ; with an Account of the chief natural Families 

 of the Vegetable Kingdom, and Notices of the principal officinal or otherwise 

 useful Plants. Illustrated with numerous Engravings on Wood. By Asa 

 Gray, M.D., &c. 8vo, pp. 413. New York and Boston, 1842. 



We have received this book just in time to take a rapid glance at its pages, 

 and to say that it appears to us a very excellent work. Part I. treats of 

 structural and physiological botany, and Part II. of systematic botany. There 

 are numerous woodcuts, which are very* well executed; and the paper, type, 

 and printing, are equal to those of any London publication. 



Botany for Ladies; or, a Popidar Introduction to the Natural System of Plants, 

 according to the Classification of LeCandolle. By Mrs. Loudon, Author of 

 " Instructions in Gardening for Ladies," " Year Book of Natural History," 

 " Companion to the Flower-Garden," &c. 12mo, pp. 493. London, 1842. 



The author, after stating that, when a child, she found the Linnean system 

 so repulsive, that, though she frequently tried, she never could learn botany, 

 goes on to say, that, after she married, she determined to try whether she could 

 succeed any betterby the natural system. At first she was in despair, on ac- 

 count of the hard names of Vasculares, Cellulares, Monocotyledons, Dicoty- 

 ledons, that seemed to stand on the very threshold of the science, as if to 

 forbid the entrance of any but the initiated. 



" Some time afterwards, as I was walking through the gardens of the Hor- 

 ticultural Society at Chiswick, my attention was attracted by a mass of the 

 beautiful crimson flowers of Malope grandiflora. I had never seen the plant 

 before, and I eagerly asked the name. ' It is some Malvaceous plant,' 

 answered Mr. Loudon, carelessly ; and immediately afterwards he left me to 

 look at some trees which he was about to have drawn for his Arboretum 

 Britannicum. ' Some Malvaceous plant,' thought I, as I continued looking 

 at the splendid bed before me ; and then I remembered how much the form 

 of these beautiful flowers resembled that of the flowers of the crimson Mallow, 

 the botanical name of which I recollected was Malva. ' I wish I could find 

 out some other Malvaceous plant,' I thought to myself; and when we soon 

 afterwards walked through the hothouses, I continued to ask if the Chinese 

 Hibiscus, which I saw in flower there, did not belong to Malvaceae. I was 

 answered in the affirmative; and I was so pleased with my newly-acquired 

 knowledge, that 1 was not satisfied till I had discovered every Malvaceous 

 plant that was in flower in the garden. I next learned to know the Crucife- 

 rous and Umbelliferous plants ; and thus I acquired a general knowledge of 

 three extensive orders with very little trouble to myself. My attention was 

 more fairly aroused, and by learning one order after another, I soon attained a 

 sufficient knowledge of botany to answer all the purposes for which I wished 



