REVIEW. 
115 
weather, are in continual motion, both day and night, even when the terminal leaf- 
let is asleep. External stimuli produce no effect ; the motions are very irregular 
the leaflets rise or fall more or less quickly, and retain their position for uncertain 
periods. Cold water poured upon it stops the motion, but it is immediately 
newed by warm vapour. — Lindl. Int. to Bot. 
CEPHALOTUS. 
The most striking peculiarity of Ceplialotus consists in the conversion of a por- 
tion of its radical leaves into ascidia or pitchers. But as ascidia in all cases are 
manifestly formed from or belong to leaves, and as the various parts of the flower 
in phaenogamous plants are now generally regarded as modifications of the same 
organs, the question is naturally suggested, how far the form and arrangement of 
the parts of fructification agree in those plants whose leaves are capable of producing 
ascidia or pitchers. The four principal, and indeed the only, genera in which 
pitchers occur, are Nepenthes, Cephalotus, Sarracenia, and Dischidia, and the few 
other somewhat analogous cases, consisting of the conversion of bracteee or floral 
leaves into open cuculli, are found in Marcgraavia, and two other genera of the 
same natural family. The only thing common to all these plants is, that they are 
Dicotyledo7ious. It may also be remarked, that in those genera in which the 
ascidia have an operculum (lid), namely, Nej^entheSj Cephalotus, and Sarraceiiia, 
they exist in every known species of each genus, and the structure of these genera 
is so peculiar that they form three distinct natural families ; while in Dischidia 
whose pitchers are formed without opercula, these organs are neither found in every 
species of the genus, nor in any other genus of the extensive natural order to which 
it belongs. — Philosophical Journal. 
REVIEW. 
Lindley's Ladies' Botany ; or a Familiar Introduction to the Study of the Natural 
System of Botany. By John Lindley, Ph. D. F.R.S., &c. Professor of 
Botany in the University of London. 8vo. cloth boards, plates, I65. plain; 
25s. highly coloured. 
This little book has been written in the hope that it may be useful as an 
elementary introduction to the modern method of studying systematic Botany, and 
in our judgment, it is admirably adapted to this end. It consists of twenty-five 
familiar, amusing, and instructive letters, each of which explains two, three, or 
more, of the natural Orders-, forming in the whole fifty-eight. 
There are twenty-five neat copper-plate engravings, viz. one for each letter, 
furnishing the figures of plants which are easily attainable, either from the fields 
or the commonest gardens, so as to illustrate each order as it proceeds. 
