A solitary species of the small tribe 
Elynee inhabits the boreal regions of the 
Continent. 
_ “The vast genus Carex, which almost 
exclusively constitutes the tribe Car?cee, 
. predominates in the northern parts of the 
Continent, and many of its species are pe- 
. euliar to the boreal and arctic regions, but 
a large number inhabit almost every part 
- ef North America. Of Uncinia we have 
- but a single species, a native of British 
ica,” 
3 Of the genus Carez, Dr. Torrey enume- 
. Tales one hundred and sixty-five species 
- found in North America. He has reduced 
several of the species of Willdenow, 
; Dewey, &c. to the rank of varieties. Itis 
difficult in several of the groupes of this 
. extensive genus to define species so accu- 
. Tately as to lead to an absolute certainty of 
- distinguishing plants intimately allied in 
. the form of the fruit and scale. This em- 
_ barrassment has been felt and expressed by 
— the accurate Wahlenberg, and authors will 
. €enünue to differ on the subject of species 
. and varieties. 
.. Of the hundred and sixty-five species of 
E Carez in North America, forty-seven are 
ommon to Europe and America, thirty- 
are peculiar to the high northern lati- 
. tudes, including the Rocky Mountains and 
North- West coast, leaving eighty-three 
belonging to the United States, from Texas 
to a. These numbers we have has- 
. lily summed up from Dr. Torrey's Mono- 
. Staph, as his tabular view has not yet 
a mM We can only express a hope 
c this excellent Monograph will be pub- 
3 hg Separately. At present it forms a 
L Valuable article in the volumes of the 
‘Yyeeum of New York. 
; Dioni me accomplished Botanist who 
k Boi us with his remarks on the state 
; Mei vid in Germany,! has kindly conti- 
2 18 Communication in a letter, dated 
uU. w ** Vienna, Oct. 27th, 1836. 
han " made,” he says, ** some alterations 
Tm plans, in consequence of the impos- 
letter. LE 76 of the present volume, where his last 
zoe M, observed, was dated '* Dresden." 
BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
187 
sibility of travelling in Italy with any com- 
fort whilst there is so much cholera and 
quarantine—remained some time at Dres- 
den and Carlsbad—went from thence to 
Munich, where we spent nearly a month, 
and are now settled at Vienna for the win- 
ter. At Dresden we had the pleasure of 
spending the greater part of every day with 
Humboldt, whose activity and extensive 
information about every thing that is going 
on connected with Geography and Natural 
istory are really astonishing, and whose 
readiness of communication is not in the 
least diminished by the very high social 
position he holds. I do not think I ever 
knew a more agreeable man than he is, and 
always has been. He was on his way from 
Toplitz to Berlin. Of the state of Bo- 
tany in Dresden itself I cannot say much. 
The Garden is like the second-rate bota- 
nical gardens on the continent, containing 
a tolerable proportion of common exotic 
plants, and a better collection of German 
plants than usual, with Reichenbach's 
names. Professor Reichenbach was ex- 
ceedingly attentive to us, and considering 
that he has nearly all the year round daily 
lectures to deliver on all the branches of 
Natural History ; that he superintends 
the arrangement of the Natural History 
Museum (by no means an indifferent one), 
and of the Garden; and that all the draw- 
ings for his works are made under his own 
eye, he must be allowed to be a laborious, 
active, and useful man. You know his *[co- 
nographia of European Plants'—it is now 
definitively terminated with the eleventh 
part, consisting of one hundred and twelve 
plates,? and he is at present occupied with 
a ‘German Fauna, containing the same 
kind of accurate figures of animals that 
his * Iconographia' does of plants. His 
intention is also to publish a complete se- 
ries of figures of German plants, though 
he seems at present to be directing his at- 
tention generally rather to Zoology. His 
own collection is extremely rich, as may 
be supposed, in German plants. Kaul- 
fuss’ Herbarium (of Ferns) is in the neigh 
2 These are wholly devoted to the Grasses, which 
are executed with great care. 
