320 
REVIEWS, 
PART II. 
REVIEWS AND EXTRACTS. 
REVIEWS. 
A NEW AND IMPROVED EDITION OF CURTIS’S BOTANICAL 
MAGAZINE, 
With amended Characters of the Species. The whole arranged according to the Natural Orders. 
BY W. J. HOOKER, L. L. I>. &C. &C. 
TO WHICH THE MOST APPROVED METHOD OF CULTURE IS ADDED. 
BY SAMUEL CURTIS, F. L. S. 
Each Number containing Four Figures, Partly Coloured, Is. Wholly Coloured , 2s. 
The first Number of the second Edition was published April 1st, 1833, be¬ 
ginning with the Order Ranunculaceae Tribe Clematidae, and Genus Clematis, 
of which four species are figured. With a view to render an acquaintance with 
the Natural Orders the more easy, and to adapt it to the comprehension of 
every one applying himself to the subject with common industry, the charac¬ 
ters, the characters of the Orders, and of the divisions and subdivisions are 
given, accompanied by an explanation (usually in a parenthesis,) of such words 
as the student is not likely to have met with in w'orks only introductory to the 
artificial system. 
« Let not any one suppose, that the difficulties to be overcome in acquiring a 
knowledge of the Natural Orders are insuperable, from the circumstance of the 
characters of the primary divisions or classes, the Dicotyledones, Monocotyle- 
dones, and Acotyledones, being derived from such minute, and often inaccessible 
parts of the plant, as the Cotyledones of the Embryo. One of the great beauties of 
this system is, that the groups are not distinguished by isolated characters. The 
essential peculiarities are attended by others, often external and obvious, w’hich 
though sometimes of difficult definition in words, yet soon become familiar to 
the practised eye of the student. Of the three great classes, for instance, the 
two first are recognized by the presence of tubular vessels as well as the common 
cellular tissue ,— while the last, the Acotyledones (or Exembryonatce, for they 
possess no embryo,) is destitute of these vessels, the Ferns alone excepted. Nor 
is this all, for the former (Cotyledonous and Vascular plants,) produce evident 
flowers, containing those organs essential for the re-production of the species, 
stamens and pistils : the latter (Acotyledonous and Cellulose plants) exhibit no¬ 
thing really analogous to these parts, and have, moreover, so peculiar a habit 
and appearance, that the mere Tyro who has taken but a casual glance at the 
