18 
REVIEW OF BOOKS. 
and Black Muscadine; sorts which are often imperfectly ripened even 
under glass. 
Introduction to the Science of Botany, illustrated on an 
entirely new Principle , by a Series of highly-finished Delineations of 
Plants coloured to represent Nature; including characteristic Details 
of the Physiology, Uses , and Classification of the Vegetable Kingdom. 
By Chas. F. Partington, author of various Scientific Works, and editor 
of the “ British Cyclopaedia,” See. 
The book and its accompanying illustrations are tastefully got up, 
and intended for the lecture-room. The figures are on strong paste¬ 
board, each provided with a stand for placing on a table, and intended 
to be seen from a distance. Linneean botany is the theme, and the dry¬ 
ness of its systematic details is relieved by pleasing narration and 
interesting observations. For private reference in the family drawing¬ 
room, the elegant book, ornamental case, and fourteen coloured delinea¬ 
tions, will be a most suitable applique ; and for provincial lecture, or 
reading-rooms, the whole will be found eminently useful. 
We append a few sentences from the beginning of the first lecture, 
as a specimen of the style in which the book is written. 
“ A scientific acquaintance with the vegetable kingdom now forms 
an essential portion of human knowledge ; and systematic botany, 
which, even in the last century, was little more than a dry detail of 
abstruse terms, without either instruction for the student, or interest 
to the general admirer of this beautiful portion of natural history, has 
now become a most delightful subject of scientific research. In the 
present day we do not, as in the olden time, merely catalogue the 
names of plants that surround us, but the botanist becomes acquainted 
with their attributes and properties ; neither is the study of the vege¬ 
table kingdom an isolated science, as it forms a part of the philosophy 
of the universe; and we see the hand of creative goodness as clearly in 
the wonderful organisation of the humblest lichen, as in the towering 
luxuriance of the cedar which o’ershadoweth the mountain. 
Some writers have affirmed that botany is valuable only to the natu- 
« » 
ralist; but a very brief examination of the science will serve to show 
that the data on which it is founded should be taught among the first 
principles of utilitarian knowledge, as there is scarcely a plant on the 
face of the earth that may not, in some measure, be made available in 
supplying the wants of man.” 
The Agricultural and Horticultural Annual for 1836; 
or Annual Register of the most important Discoveries and Improve¬ 
ments in Farming , Gardening , and Floriculture , with practical 
