VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY AND BOTANY. 
07 
tion have ever been much used for the pur- 
pose of preserving plants in bloom, which may 
have been brought to that state in other situa- 
tions, and have been removed into sitting- 
rooms for the purpose of decoration ; yet it is 
hardly possible to conceive any contrivance 
which is better adapted to preserve the beauty 
of such plants, by prolonging their period of 
blooming. The very same cause which len- 
ders the air of living rooms so unsuitable for 
the preservation of cut flowers, is equally 
pernicious with regard to the preservation of 
expanded blooms on living plants ; and we 
know of no contrivance which, at the same 
time that it preserved the blossoms them- 
selves, would more fully or satisfactorily per- 
mit the perfect enjoyment of them, and secure 
the safety of the plants which produced them. 
When they are constructed with a view to 
being used for such a purpose, it will be 
necessary to provide them of a suitable size 
for the plants intended for them; and in 
cultivating these for such a purpose, the same 
consideration as to size is necessary, in order 
that they may be made to assume a neat and 
artistical effect when adjusted for display. In 
connexion with this, we must not omit to 
mention, that whilst a due share of light is no 
less essential to the preservation of flowers 
than to the cultivation of plants, the former 
require some degree of protection from the 
intense sun-rays of mid-day in summer, in 
order to prevent them from falling prematurely. 
We should here mention, that any con- 
trivance which admits light, and confines the 
atmospheric humidity, is the same in principle 
as that we have been examining ; and is, 
according to its size, equally adapted for the 
purposes of cultivation. 
VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY AND BOTANY.* 
The complaint which we have most fre- 
quently to make against the authors who 
favour us with treatises is, that they begin 
their works as if every reader were fully 
acquainted with the science about to be ex- 
plained, up to a certain point, as though their 
sole business were to lead us onwards. An 
objection scarcely less tangible is, that infor- 
mation intended or avowedly provided for 
the multitude, is so clogged with the techni- 
calities of science, that every one had need 
undergo a sort of college drilling to under- 
stand them. Dr. Carpenter does not lay 
himself open to either of these charges. He 
professes to deal popularly with scientific mat- 
ters, to let the multitude in at the large fold- 
ing doors, instead of crowding along a narrow 
dark passage, and to give us the benefit of his 
* Vegetable Physiology and Botany, 
penter. 8vo. London : Orr & Co. 
By Dr. Car- 
best lighted apartments, a reception at Ins 
scientific soiree, without subjecting us to a 
long and dreary pilgrimage through dull 
and mysterious avenues, which are the only 
approaches to the assemblies of his neighbour- 
ing or fellow professors. It may be that 
some of the beautiful and intricate passages 
of a favourite composer are not equally ap- 
preciated by all the visitors ; it may be that 
some of the paintings which adorn the walls, 
although beautiful, do not throw us all alike 
into ecstasies; and that some of the books and 
prints which cover his tables, and set con- 
noisseurs longing as well as admiring, are not 
equally interesting to all the party ; nay, 
some of the conversation may not be so delight- 
ful to tyros as to other of the company ; but 
we may all indulge, to the full bentof our minds 
and capacities, in the delightful entertainment 
provided for us, without a previous purgatory 
in the school of druggery, through which some 
insist all shall make their way to the more stiff- 
starched conversaziones which they provide. 
Vegetable Physiology, as generally treated, 
is a stale subject; stale, because all writers 
upon it are imitators ; stale, because they all 
tell the same humdrum tale in the same 
technical language, and illustrate it with the 
same series of wood-cuts that have run tho 
round of all the Physiological works from our 
great great grandfathers downwards. Dr. 
Carpenter has avoided this, and has given us, 
in plain familiar terms, some idea of the 
structure of plants, and very many beauti- 
fully executed sketches to illustrate the subject. 
To go into the merit of this work more 
seriously and less figuratively, Dr. Carpenter 
professes to give us scientific information in a 
popular form, that those may enjoy it who 
have neither the leisure nor the inclination 
for study. The author is no atheist to begin 
with: he says truly, 
" The beneficent Creator of all has not only 
ordained that every part of His works should 
be good — should be adapted to answer its 
designed end, and should contribute in the 
highest degree of which it is capable to the 
well-being of His creatures ; — but He has 
made every thing ' beautiful in its season,' — 
He has so formed the mind of man, that it 
derives pleasure from the contemplation of 
the glorious works around him. And it is, 
therefore, a worthy employment of our facul- 
ties to encourage this pleasure, and to place 
it upon a more solid and extended foundation 
than that afforded by the mere forms and 
colours of the objects around us, however 
beautiful these may be."— Pp. 1, 2. 
In stating the nature of his work, he says, 
"The object of the following treatise will 
be, therefore, to lead those who may be dis- 
i2 
