1064 Retrofped of French Literature... Botaiy...B viles Letires. 
~BoTany. 
 Botanique pour les. Femmes,” &c. 
Botany for Females and Amateurs; by 
M. Batscs, Profeffor at. Jena, 1 vol. 
Svo. with 101 coloured plates, and an al- 
phabetical table of the plants. This work, 
after having acquired great ‘celebrity in 
Germany, now appears ina French drefs ; 
and the author, by way of inducing ie 
fair mec omen to perufe it, has 
given a greater elegance to the expref- 
fions, and a more feumnenial turn to the 
whole. 
‘* Plora Atlantica, feu Hiftoria Planta- 
rum, que in Atlante, Agro Tunetano, et 
Algerienfi erefcunt,” &c. The Flora 
of Mount Atlas; or, a Hiftory of the 
Plants that grow in the Neighbourhood of 
Tasis and Algiers; by RENE Desron- 
TAINES, a Meniber of the National In- 
fitute of France, and Profefor of Bo- 
tany, im the Mufeum of Natural Hilttorg 
of Paris. We have already announced 
the firit part of this fplendid and ufeful 
work, which is at length compieted in 
two large volumes: it is writtenin Latin, 
and arranged according to the fyitem of 
Linnzus ; the engravings amount to two 
hundred and fixty-three. Desfontaines, 
the author, refided, dure three Sele 
years, at Tunis. and Algiers, under the 
anfpices -of the ancient government of 
France, and the Academy of Sciences of 
Paris; he had therefore the beft oppor- 
tunity to make refearches imto the botany 
of Africa, &c.; thefe volumes are the firit 
fruits of his labours. 
«« Phytoicgie Univerfelle,” &c. Uni- 
verfal } Phytology , or a Natural and Me- 
thodical Hiftory of ne their Preper- 
ties, their Virtues, and their Culture; a 
Work confecrated to thé Progrefs of the 
ufeful Sciences, Agriculture, and all the 
Arts; by N. JoLycueac,- WNaturalift, 
and Man of Letters.—The French al- 
seady pofiefied verfions of the fyftem 
of Linneus, the Elements of Botany by 
"Fournefert, and the Cryprogamy of 
melin, all of which were tranflated by 
folyclerc; they had ae a tranilation of 
e celebrated work of fuMieu, under 
he title of “* Tableau ae Regne Végeéral’”” 
picture of the vegetable kingdom) ; 
Pes a ge eneral fy tem was fill wanting, 
= jis deficiency 1s here attempted to 
ee No ‘clafs of plants, not 
ofe made known in Ponds quence 
moit recent difeoveries, is here 
omitte fe and each of them 1s compared 
with the ingenious fyfems of Dourne- 
} 
43 
fame Ff Ese fl lL 
ECr by Beg US; and J Tutker Uy vY hick Exe 
woes 
bidde 
_ traction of “his abfurd enemies. 
author makes to agree with each othen 
All the European and exotic kinds, 
which are calculated .to excite the atten- 
tion of the amateur, are here given. 
Ee ua vegetables, at leaft, are 
indicated; and more than twelve choufand 
are dchesibat im a clear and precife manner. 
The author has been at great pains to 
affign the falutary or hurtful properties 
of each plant deferibed by him; its me- 
dical ‘virtues ; its chemical qualities, fo 
far as dying, ‘and the other ufeful arts, are 
connected, &c.; he alfo points out the ~ 
native foil of ev ery vegetable, its habits, 
its temperament, and its defeription. 
BeELLES LETTRES. <_ 
és Lycée, ou Cours de Littécoeueeae 
cienne et Moderne,” &c. The Lyceum; 
or Courfe of Ancient and Modern Lite-- 
rature; by LauarPe,. 8 vols. 8ve. The 
Lyceum of Paris, foon fe its eftablith- 
ment, acquired a confiderable degree of 
celebrity ; and in 1786, it was cuftomary 
for all the handfome women of the ca- 
pital to attend the leétures read there. 
On this, La harpe, the profeffor of lite- 
rature, found it neceffary to extend his. 
plan ; and thefe eight volumes, which are 
to be followed by four more, are the 
fruit of his labours. . An argumentative 
oe of all the works of genius, and 
magination, from the time of Homer to 
oe prefent day, is, undoubtedly, one of 
the moft precious prefents that can be 
made by one of the moft diftinguithed 
iterary men of our age 
This eftimable work j 1s - vided into three 
parts. The firft contains the literature ‘of 
the ancients ; the fecond that of the age 
of Louis XIV. ; and the third, which 
will be detailed in four additional vo- 
humes, that of the prefent age. The 
‘introduétion, confifting of fifty pages, 
exhibits many general ideas on the art 
of writing, on the advantages of that art, 
on the alliance between philofophy and 
the arts of imagination, and on the ac- 
ceptation of the words tafe and genius. 
‘The author, who. begins with the poe- 
try of the ancients, deems it neceflary to 
give an analy tis of-tuhe poetics of Ari- 
ftotle ; and the: genius of that great man 
is atonce avenged for the filly panezy- 
rics of his blind enthufiafts, and the de- 
The fe- 
cond chapter exhibits an analyfs of Lon- 
ginus’s treatife on the fublime. In the. 
third, we are prefented with a compa- 
rifon between the French language and 
thofe of the ancients. On this eccafion 
Laharpe maimtains that the language-of ~ 
his 
