212 THE FLORIST AND 
Now, Mrs. Green seems to be fully aware of the wants of this class, for 
she says in her preface : 
"It is a remarkable fact, that, with all the beauty of flowers, and the 
universal love of them which prevails in the world, the science of flowers 
is one of the most unpopular — the driest and the dullest, in common 
estimation — to which the attention of the student is ever called. But 
there can be no intrinsic necessity of this. Objects which are externally 
so beautiful, and which address themselves to the finest afiiections of the 
soul, must, in their internal structure, their habits, and all the relations of 
their beautiful life, present corresponding associations of beauty and love, 
whenever true and familiar views can be obtained. An attempt is made in 
the present series to disarm the science of at least a portion of those terrors, 
with which it has been long invested, and to make it interesting and 
attractive to the common mind." 
Not only was our authoress aware of the want, but she set out with the 
intention of removing it ; and we are sure, that, under all the circum- 
stances, she has succeeded very well. Her stjde is easy and flowing, and 
carries the reader along as smoothly as the exactness of description 
demanded by the present state of Botany will admit ; and sometimes even 
this exactness is made to yield to the desire for a graceful period, or for 
pleasing imagery. 
The arrangement of the book does not differ materially from that of the 
excellent "Botanical Text Book" of Professor Gray, or the well prepared 
preliminary treatise in Professor Alonzo Wood's Class Book. We are 
gratified to find a chapter devoted to the subject of the " Geographical 
distribution of Plants," by the study of which a comprehensiveness is given 
to the science of Botany, and its association secured with Meteorology, 
Geology, and Physical Geography. Speaking of the tropical portions of 
Africa, Mrs. G. says : 
" Here we find in abundance leguminous plants, Peppers, Passion-flowers 
and Palms. Here the giant Baobab seems to stand still within the circling 
thousands of his years, the lovely Date Palm ripens its grateful fruit, and 
woos with its feathery foliage the hot breath of the desert, and the tender- 
leaved Acacias, fixed in the arid soil, extract from the torrid sunbeams the 
coloring of their golden flower." 
In the same chapter, speaking of the partial distribution of plants, this 
language is used : 
"In a little cluster of islands, the Moluccas, the clove is found, and 
nowhere else ; confined to a narrow girdle of the Andes flourish the race 
of Peruvian-bark trees ; on three small islands of Africa the double cocoa- 
nut tree ; in a little corner of Asia the tea shrub ; and almost within the 
