156 THE FLORIST AND 
SOUTHERN BOTANY, 
Botany of the Southern States : in two parts. Part I. Structural and Physiological 
Botany and vegetable products. Part II. Descriptions of Southern plants, 
arranged on the Natural System, preceded by a Linnaean and Dichotomous 
Analysis, By Prof. John Darby, A. M. New York : A. S. Barnes & Co., 1855, 
pp. 612. Price, U 75. 
The Flora of our Southern States, beautiful and varied as it is, is too 
little known and appreciated in the north. While they have with us the 
handsome Ericaceous shrubs, the Kalmias, Rhododendrons, Andromedas 
and Azaleas, in greater number and beauty of species, they have with 
them their splendid Magnolias, Halesias and other beautiful trees. Their 
climbers in addition to ours are such as the handsome Caprifolia, and the 
sweet smelling Gelsemium ; six of the seven species of Sarracenia are found 
south of Virginia ; the Dionaea of North Carolina, and the Tillandsia of 
Florida, are among the curious and interesting plants which decorate their 
swamps and forests. 
While we are waiting for the completion, if such an event will ever hap- 
pen, of Torrey & Gray's Flora of North America, the descriptive part of 
the book before us, will, with Gray's Botany of the Northern U. S., serve 
as a handbook of the Eastern half of the States. 
The books most used for southern plants, Pursh's Flora and Elliott's 
Botany have grown old. Generic names are changed in many instances, 
and the Linnaean system has gone out of use. This, with the exception of 
the author's edition of 1842, is the only complete Flora we have of the 
South. 
The work is divided into two parts. First, a treatise on structural and 
physiological botany, arranged for the use of the schools with questions at 
the bottom of each page. This, the most important part of the book, is 
well handled in the usual manner of such works ; the style is clear, and the 
various forms and structure are well illustrated by wood cuts. We say 
the most important part, for the science of botany is very differently esti- 
mated now from what it was some years ago : as the author very aptly 
says in his preface. " Botany has been generally considered as limited to 
enabling one to determine the name of the flower, and, as studied in our 
schools and colleges, this is about all it accomplishes. A student thus 
taught has just about as much claim to any useful knowledge of Botany, as 
one who^ barely knows the name of the whale, has, on that account, to a 
knowledge of that animal. To know the names of things is certainly an 
