REVIEWS. 
G5 
of these are imperfect substitutes for the natural scene. Few possess 
such power of lucid description as to be able to convey in appropriate 
language an idea of the beautiful scenery with which our world abounds. 
There is an art, however, which has recently made rapid progress, and can 
be made available for the purpose alluded to—we mean photography in 
its different departments ; and when, by its means, double pictures are 
taken for the stereoscope, we can bring under the ■ eye peculiarities of 
Flora’s features which any ordinary picture cannot enable us to realise. 
We need scarcely add, that some amount of botanical knowledge very 
materially enhances the value of all substitutes, whether pictorial or 
descriptive, for the real scenes. 
The book which has occasioned these remarks is a useful, popular 
addition to the literature of the subject of which it treats. Its utility is 
increased by the plates, twenty in number, which are interspersed, and 
comprehend Lapland scenery, Australian vegetation, tropical forest vege¬ 
tation, and other features of different vegetable zones. 
A Popular History of British Lichens. By W. Lauder Lindsay. 
M.D. Beeve, London. 1856. 22 Plates. Eoyal 16mo. 
For the correctness of the information contained in this useful manual the 
author’s already well-earned fame in this department of botanical science 
is sufficient guarantee, and every beginner, and even many an advanced 
student, must hail the appearance, in the English tongue, of a guide to 
assist his researches among this exquisite family of plants. For though, 
during the period when natural history was believed to be merely a search, 
after the beautiful, not the scientific, this subject was rendered “botanically 
odious by booksyet, since botany expanded itself into a science, whilst 
almost every other department of it can boast its manuals and hand books, 
Lichenology remained nearly a blank, with the exception of books whose 
expense put them altogether beyond the ordinary student’s reach. The 
general plan of the letterpress is most excellent. After a general preface 
in honour of his favourite plants, from which space will not permit an 
extract, but which we strongly recommend the perusal of, the author 
gives a chapter on the history of Lichenology, briefly reviewing the subject, 
and showing, alas! how backward Britain has been in the field, though one 
or two even of her great men have written on the subject. Next, a prac¬ 
tical chapter on the general characters of British lichens, showing the 
alterations which the external foim of the same species often undergoes, 
