422 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
A MANUAL OF BOTANY * 
T HE author of the work which is now before us bears the name of the 
most able botanist that this country has yet produced — Robert Brown. 
Is he worthy of it ? We can only judge by his efforts. In this volume 
he puts before the student a fair resume of what has been done in the 
botanic field within the past ten years. We have seen many books on this 
subject produced in England, but if we except the one splendid handbook, 
the work of the late Professor Henfrey, there is not another creditable volume 
to be named. We have, however, in the work of Dr. Robert Brown, another 
instance of a book which looks more like an English translation of a first-class 
German essay than the production of an English worker. However, the 
book is unquestionably by an Englishman (or Scotchman), and it does 
him, we must say, infinite credit ; for he has not only gone into the common 
subjects treated of in text-books, but he has departed from the ordinary or 
routine ones, and has dealt fully — and given references to his authorities 
— with such important questions as nutrition, fertilization, germination, 
longevity, mimicry, movement, opening and closing of flowers, vegetable 
irritability, and the odours, colours, luminiosity, and temperature of plants. 
All these subjects he has dealt with fully yet concisely, and with reference 
in many cases to papers and researches which were only published as recently 
as last year, while he has dealt more fully than usual with the ordinary and 
less interesting work. The book will be an excellent one for the advanced 
student, its only objection being the type, which we consider too small. 
Its illustrations are very well executed woodcuts, nearly 370 in number, and 
many of them quite new to the botanical student. We certainly commend 
the work. 
METALLURGY.t 
I T is certainly a misappropriation of words to call this book the Elements 
of Metallurgy, for it is a vast work extending over nearly 800 pages 
of very large 8vo., and dealing fully with the subject. Further, it is 
partly illustrated, having more than 200 woodcuts interspersed through the 
text, though the figures are not quite so numerous as we could have wished. 
Perhaps the works which heretofore we should have considered the best on 
this important subject are those of Professor Percy and Messrs. Crookes and 
Rohrig 5 but unquestionably that of Mr. J. A. Phillips is at once better, and 
in some respects fuller, and in all more recent than any other work that 
has been published. The subject of iron manufacture is of course that on 
which the author has dealt at fullest length, and this is, we may say, ad- 
* 11 A Manual of Botany, Anatomical and Physiological,” for the Use of 
Students. By Robert Brown, M.A., Ph.D., F.L.S., &c. Blackwood & 
Sons, Edinburgh : 1874. 
t “ Elements of Metallurgy ; ” a Practical Treatise on the Art of Ex- 
tracting Metals from their Ores. By J. A. Phillips, Memb. Inst. C.E., F.G.S., 
F.C.S., &c. London : Charles Griffin & Co., 1874. 
