140 



THE YOUNG 



NATUEAL1ST. 



such portions of botanical science as are 

 useful, agreeable, and easily at command, 

 though without leisure to study botany in 

 its minute details." Carrying out this idea 

 the contents are so arranged as to be easily 

 mastered. It commences with an introduc- 

 tion, containing everything necessary for the 

 understanding of the growth of plants, their 

 various parts, mode of reproduction, &c, 

 etc. This is illustrated with nearly 100 

 figures, and the beginner who has mastered 

 the introduction has got over the greatest 

 difficulty. 



The second important part of the book is 

 an artificial key to enable any to find the 

 family to which a plant belongs, without 

 much botanical knowledge. This is done 

 by means of a table in the manner of those 

 in Stainton's Manual, previously spoken of. 

 To us it always seemed that the table was 

 so inordinately lengthy that it would be 

 more trouble to find a plant by its use, 

 than to acquire the necessary botanical 

 knowledge to enable it to be dispersed with. 

 There are ten or twelve pages of it, and only 

 those who have used such things can under- 

 stand the difficulty of going through so 

 very lengthy a tabulation. 



Following this, we have the more im- 

 portant part of the book. This professes to 

 have the families arranged in the " Natural 

 Order." What is the Natural Order will 

 always be a matter of individual opinion, 

 but we have no fault to find with that of 

 Mr. Grindon's. All the families are 

 described whether there are any British 

 representations of them or not, and where 

 there are British species the matter is 

 arranged in four parts. First there is a 

 general description of the family, and of the 

 number of species, &c. This is followed by 

 an artificial key enabling those who have 

 made out the family by the previous one, 

 to follow up now till he can name the 

 species. Then comes the English and 

 scientific name, and a brief account of the 



Habitat and Distribution of the various 

 species, their time of flowering, and a 

 reference to any figures of the plant in 

 British works on botany. Lastly we have 

 an account of the various plants of the 

 family that are cultivated in gardens, green- 

 houses, &c. There the species are briefly 

 described in a popular way, and the scientific 

 name of them given. Anyone with a 

 smattering of the science can make out the 

 -cultivated plants by this, though it does not 

 go into much detail. Garden varieties are 

 also noticed, an occasional classical or other 

 quotation given, and any other matter likely 

 to be interesting is not omitted. 



Ferns, Horsetails, Mosses, Lichens, Fungi 

 and Seaweeds are described, as well as 

 flowering plants proper, but the species of 

 the Ferns, Horsetails, Club Mosses and 

 Pileworts only are described, of the Mosses, 

 Liverworts, Lichens, Fungi, &c, &c, but a 

 general account of the family ig given. 



Altogether we know of no book that con- 

 tains so much matter, both popular and 

 scientific, within a comparatively small 

 compass as British and Garden Botany. It is 

 written, apart from the tables in a pleasant 

 readable style, which sometimes is quite 

 poetical, thus speaking of the rarity of 

 Lobelia urens he says " The progress of culti- 

 vation appear likely soon to efface it, but the 

 right onward furrow of a generous utility is 

 better than the preservation of a thousand 

 wild Lobelias." Of the common dog rose 

 [Rosacanina) he says " In summer tossing out 

 wreaths of pink and green, and making 

 elastic flowery arches, there is probably no 

 flower of the hedgerows, unless the sweet 

 breathed honeysuckle, that gives more 

 pleasure to the lover of simple nature. ' 1 The 

 last rose" may have its pathos ; the first is 

 like the smile of a child ; and when the bare 

 and denuded twigs hold up those beautiful 

 clusters of scarlet berries, shaped like urns, 

 that fortel the coming of winter, it is far less 

 like decay than resurrection," 



