HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 123 



BOOK NOTICES. 



The Principles of Botany, as exemplified in the Cryptogamia ; for the 



use of Schools and Colleges, by Harlan d Coultas. Lindsay & Blackistonf 

 Philada. 185-3. pp. 94. 



The issue from the Philadelphia press of a book on Botany, and an original 

 book, too, is such a novelty that we are ready to hail with satisfaction the 

 appearance of any work on the subject. The last we remember was a Cate- 

 chism about the size of a primer by Mr. Samuel Gummere. Whether that 

 be out of print or not we cannot say, but certainly the time has come for 

 something better, and so we presume thought Mr. Coultas, for he has given 

 us something not only wonderfully superior without, but within, introducing 

 another world — we would say a world of minute beauty, were beauty capable 

 of being thus qualified. That Catechism and this Class-book contrast well 

 the present with the past, and argue hopefully for the demands of the science 

 in the future. 



The study of the vegetable kingdom through the (so called) lower tribes of 

 plants is the idea which would seem to have suggested the book before us. 

 These humble beings we have around us at all seasons. Regarding 4hem as 

 the type of the vegetable creation, the study of the laws of their development 

 and growth will lead to the comprehension of the more complex forces which 

 are at work in the grander and more gorgeous botanical productions. Thus, 

 in his introduction, page x. our author says : " The study of the simpler 

 plants ought to take the precedence of those whose organization is more 

 complex and intricate, as being the simplest expression of the laws of vege- 

 table life." This proposition which w r e presume none will deny who are at 

 all conversant with the present condition and tendency of the science of Bo- 

 tany, was also recognized by the illustrious Jussieu himself. In his study 

 of plants under the then grand divisions of Acotyledons, Monocotyledons and 

 Dieotyledons, he commences with the Algae and closes with the Composite, 

 the flowers of which, to him, present the most perfect transformation of the 

 prototype leaf. 



The one-ness of vegetable development is thus stated, p. 49: "The little 

 bread mould which nature constructs from decaying organic matter in a few 

 short hours, consisting of a few united vegetative cells and a single terminal 

 reproductive cell, is only a simpler expression of the same law which operates 

 in the production of the forest tree. The extent of all development in forest 

 trees and flowering plants is alone different — the phenomena themselves are 

 precisely analogous. In forest trees and flowering plants, the vegetative 

 cells as they develope in countless millions, assume distinct organic parts, as 

 root, stem and leaves, whilst the reproductive cells are seen in the form of 

 beautiful and highly organized flowers. In the bread mould all such distinc- 



