i88 3 J 
Analyses oj Books . 619 
of custom-house officials and gensdarmes, and even of game- 
keepers, which it is well to avoid. The character of a Professor 
is the best for avoiding impertinent questions.” 
In the British Empire, fortunately, a man is not asked, when 
travelling, as to his profession or his purposes, though in the 
home kingdoms the gamekeeper is sometimes very rampant and 
troublesome. But on the Continent any gensdarme is at liberty 
to examine the traveller, and so on frontiers is the revenue- 
officer. We once, on the Austrian boundary, routed a troublesome 
member of this fraternity by opening under his nose a box con- 
taining some live specimens of the salamander. “ Holy Nepo- 
muck, pray for us sinners ! ” was his ejaculation, as he rushed 
frantically away from animals supposed so deadly. 
M. Lambert’s advice to the travelling botanist is singular: — - 
“ I recommend to carry with you a bottle of ammonia and another 
of volatile alkali, in case of experiencing sunstrokes, the stings 
of inseCts, of vipers, the bites of rabid animals, &c.” 
“ Volatile alkali ” is generally regarded as an antiquated syno- 
nym for ammonia, though some, we believe, apply it to ammo- 
nium carbonate. We can certainly recommend it for the bites 
of vipers and for the stings and bites of many inserts, though 
not for that of the harvest-bug, which requires the application of 
dilute carbolic acid. For the bite of a mad dog its value would 
be trifling indeed. 
After instructions on the choice of paper and presses, the 
author points out the seasons most advantageous for the field- 
botanist in the different parts of France, with regard to such 
stations as walls and ruins, fields and meadows, woods, marshes, 
mountains, and the sea-shore. 
After this introductory matter, much of which will prove very 
useful to botanists travelling in France, the author proceeds to a 
systematic account of the vegetable kingdom arranged according 
to their families. The structural characteristics of the most 
important forms are shown by means of numerous illustrations, 
and the geographical distribution of each family is not forgotten# 
A very convenient feature of the book is that it gives the French 
trivial and local names of the principal plants, in addition to the 
scientific nomenclature. 
The author does not enter into vegetable physiology. He re- 
gards also apparently every species as an ultimate and indepen- 
dent faCt. Hence he belongs, apparently, to the Old School of 
Natural History, with its characteristic limitations. 
2 S 2 
