REVIEWS. 
63 
Teller through the history of his difficulties, and we feel that to give 
any extract from his most amusing record of them would be doing a posi¬ 
tive injustice to their “ admirable ” relator, who appears to be gifted with 
a rare union of all that is required to be found in the explorer of almost 
unknown regions. We venture to predict that Hooker’s Journal will long 
be sought for by the Himalayan tourist as the book on that region ; one 
in which the desultory reader will find ample stores of information 
pleasingly narrated, and in which the studious inquirer will find the most 
important questions that may, or, indeed, could be brought under his 
notice, treated of with all the vigour of a master mind. 
Palm Trees of the Amazon, and their Uses. By Alfred B. Wallace. 
With forty-eight plates. London : John Van Voorst. F.cap 8vo., pp. 
130. Price 10s. 6d. 1853. 
In this pleasing little volume we have, from the pen of an accomplished 
naturalist, an account of the Palm Trees of the Amazon Valley. Its 
author collected the materials during a residence of four years in the valley 
of that river, which were most labouriously spent in acquiring an intimate 
knowledge of its natural history. On his return to Europe with a large 
collection which he had made during his residence there, the vessel in 
which he was a passenger took fire, and went down, leaving him to the 
mercy of the waves. He was picked up by the u Jordeson ,” 200 miles 
from land, and has lived to record in this, and another work of great power 
and interest, the record of his observations and discoveries. The present 
work is well got up, and the plates, though uncoloured, are very charac¬ 
teristic of the forms of vegetable life which they represent, and will prove 
acceptable to many who have not the opportunity of either seeing or pro¬ 
curing the splendid works of Dr. Martius on the Palm Tribe. 
