Botany, &c. 313 



Mr. "Webb, twenty-four in number ; by an account of bis library 

 and berbaria; and by selections from bis correspondence witb 

 various botanists. The lithographed portrait in the frontispiece 

 is a truer likeness of Mr. Webb, than that which was published 

 in his great work, the Histoire Naturelle des lies Canaries : — 



Agricultural Botany in the Western States. — In the fourth 

 volume of the Transactions of tbe State Agricultural Society of 

 Wisconsin for 1854-7, Mr. Lapham has given a good popular ac- 

 count of the forest trees indigenous to that State, illustrated by 

 outline wood-cuts. To the Transactions of the Illinois Agricul- 

 tural Society for 1856-7 the same indefatigable author has con- 

 tributed, 1. A Catalogue of the Plants of Illinois, prefaced by 

 some historical and statistical details ; 2. An account of tbe Na- 

 tive, Naturalized and Cultivated Grasses of Illinois, illustrated by 

 three plates or pages of wood-cuts. These do not equal tbe 

 figures in Mr. Lapham's Grasses of Wisconsin. We are disposed 

 to doubt tbe statement on p. 559 about the difference in the spe- 

 cific gravity of the pollen of Indian corn and of wild rice, unless 

 the author can vouch for it from his own proper observations. 

 Perhaps it rests upon no better basis of fact than the statement on 

 tbe preceding page, that "had the wheat crop been at any time 

 entirely destroyed, this invaluable grain would have been restored 

 to us from seeds preserved for more than three thousand years in 

 the folds of an Egyptian mummy !" We ought perhaps to say, 

 that the asserted cases of such germination will not bear exami- 

 nation ; and that those best qualified to judge utterly disbelieve, 

 not only tbe asserted fact, but also tbe possibility of any sucb oc- 

 currence : — 



How Plants Grow : A simple Introduction to Structural Bo- 

 tany ; with a Popular Flora, or an arrangement and description 

 of Common Plants, both wild and cultivated. By Asa Grav, 

 M. D., Fisher Professor of Natural History in Harvard Univer- 

 sity. 234 pp„ 16mo., illustrated by 500 wood engravings. New 

 York, 1858. Ivison & Phinney. — Dr. Gray has prepared this 

 little volume expressly for young beginners in botany, and for 

 use in common schools, and has well carried out his purpose. 

 The work is simple in style, and beautiful in its illustrations. 

 While teaching with clearness the details of the subject, it is 

 constantly bearing the mind, by simple explanations, above these 

 details to higher thoughts and principles, and preparing it for the 

 fuller survey of tbe science in the more extended works of the 



