INTBODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 11 



vague character. Those English readers who may desire 

 to see information about the botany of other Eiu'opean 

 countries, which is to some extent of a similar kind, can 

 most readily do so by reading Professor Henfrey's 

 pleasing volume on The Vegetation of Europe, its Condi- 

 tions and Causes. That book is well written, very read- 

 able, and conveys much information in a small compass. 

 It brings into a single volume an outline of the various 

 treatises in relation to the geographical botany of Europe, 

 written by many different botanists. But as those writers 

 had adopted no uniform method, and scarcely any one 

 work had been planned or penned with reference to the 

 other works, an epitomized juxta-position of their con- 

 tents makes an incongruous total, which insufficiently 

 warrants the very ambitious title bestowed upon his 

 volume by Mr. Henfrey. It would require a Collator 

 or Compiler thoroughly and practically conversant with 

 the subject of geographical botany, to give anything like 

 congruity and connexion to materials in themselves so 

 heterogeneous. The defect thus alluded to may be 

 deemed almost unavoidable, and inherent in the nature 

 of the book. The Author' s too frequent omission of 

 references to the works from which he derived his infor- 

 mation (See Cybele, vol. 3, page 517) might be amended 

 in a second edition, if called for ; at once improving the 

 usefulness of the book to beginners, and doing somewhat 

 tardy justice to those writers, whose real researches in 

 nature afforded the materials from which it was made. 



Those botanists who may wish to read and study a 

 complete treatise on phyto-geography, in all its varied 

 bearings, can now resox't to the highly elaborate and 

 most valuable work by M. Alphonse De Candolle, pub- 

 lished in 1855, under title of Geographic Botanique Rat- 

 sonnee. This is truly an exposition of the ' Earth's 



