HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 211 
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
Analytical Class Book of Botany, designed for Acadamies and private students : 
in two Parts : Part I, Elements of Vegetable Structure and Physiology, by 
Frances H. G-reen ; Part II, Systematic Botany, illustrated by a compendious 
Flora of the Northern States, by Joseph W. Congdon, in cue vol., 4to., pp. 228 
D. Appleton & Co., N. Y., 1855. 
We have no personal knowledge of Mrs. Green, the authoress of Part 
I. of the above book, and yet, now that we have read her work, it would 
seem as if an acquaintance already existed. Such is the nearness of the 
writer on a favorite subject, and her reader. They are like succeeding voya- 
gers, who have made the same tour, climbed the same eminences, admired 
the same landscapes, and criticised the same beautiful creations of art. 
Moreover, the interest which one tourist feels in his predecessor and his 
tour, is in proportion to the unfrequented beauty of their common route, 
to its remoteness from the thronged channels of fashionable travel. Here, 
too, the comparison holds, and unless we mistake, to it may be ascribed the 
interest in the volume before us. For Botany, with all its fascinations, is 
not yet fashionable. Its votaries are faithful, plodding, enthusiastic, but 
few. The throng take another line, and pass by a different way. It is just 
thirty years since an English author wrote, — and never poet or prophet 
spake more truly : 
What lore -with tranquil pleasure better fills 
The mind, fair Botany! than thine ! 
, Thy paths 
Retired, "with thy own flo-wers are ever strew'd ; 
Thy own fresh garlands ever grace thy brow. 
Where'er thy votaries thou leadest, — whether 
Along the silent vale, or verdant lane ; 
By hedge-row sheltered, or over the lone heath ; 
Whether to rushy pool, green-mantled, or 
Through the wild forest's thick-entangled maze ; 
Whether by softly mui-m'ring brook, that bright 
R.efiects its gay-enameled bank ; or 'long - 
The rocky shore, dash'd by the foaming waves 
Of ocean wide ; or up the steep ascent 
Of rugged mountains, rising to the clouds ; 
Still pleasure, profit, health, thy steps attend. 
The pure heart pulsates with every measure of these lines, and responds 
to every syllable of them, and thousands in city and country, imbued with 
refined and hallowed taste, how they wish to understand Botany. How 
they would like to study it, if they only had a good book. 
