ise Monthly Naturalists Report [March J, 
species, likewise found by Dr. Buchanan in Upper Népal. 3. Jasminum birsetam. Dr- Smith 
has here taken an opportunity of settling a plant whose $ynonyms have hitherto been obscure. 
According to this account, the Jasminum hirsutum & pubescens of Willdenow and Vahl are 
the same species; and the Nyctanthes #is/tiflora of Butman is proved, upon the authority of 
a specimen of his own, not to be different. If so, Wahl must have béén mistaken, when he © 
added it as a synonym fo his I. undulatus and we were led into an error int our Report for 
January in following him. Our opinion, however, that the Jasminum maltiflorum of the 
Botanist’s Repository was the gubescens Of Retz and Vahl, is confirmed by Dr. Smith. This. 
fine species is a native of China and the East-Indies, and was sent by Dr. Roxburgh to Lady. 
fmelia' Hume. 4. Utricularia reticulata, a native of inundated rice grounds in various parts 
ef the Fast-Indies, and one of the species confounded under the U. c@rulea of Linnzus. 
S» Seseli gummifernm, discovered by Dallas in the Crimea. It has been cultivated three 
yearsago in the Oxfurd Garden, and grews in theopen air in those of Lady Amelia Hume and 
Mr. Lambert. ; i 
Fhe English Botanist cannot failto be very much gratified hy the publication of Dr, Smith’s 
Entroduction to Physiological and Systematical Botany, in which he will find the anatomy 
and physiology of vegetables explained in a familiar manner, in well written language, and 
with a delicacy that can never raisé the blush of insulted modesty on the cheek of the inno- 
€ent fair. We consider this of the first importance in communicating the knowledge of this 
Zascinating and innocent science, than which none ean be. found be-ter suited to the female 
mind. But unfortunately, when instruction in it was communicated through the medium of 
the Latin language, and intended for philosophers only, by drawing comparisons between the 
ergans of vegetables and those of animals, the science was conveyed in terms too indelicate for 
the female ear, though not more objectionable than those used in other branches of compara 
tive anatomy. But what punishment is adequate to the crime of some, whose prurient ima- 
ginations have indulged in these filthy speculations, in such a manner as to render the study 
of an amiable and elegant science offensive to Feminine modesty? Dr. Smith has shewn, 
that what is known of the use of the different organs of vegetables may be communicated 
without the use of any indecent allusions. We think however that he might, with a little 
address, have explained the use of the organs destined to ripen and vivify the seeds in a less 
timid manner than he has done, without danger of exciting an impropér idea in an innos 
cent mind. " 
In explaining the terms by which the different forms of the parts of vegetables are desig- 
nated, the Boctor has closely followed the Philosophia Botanica of his great master; and we 
were rather.disappointed to find no explanation whatever of terms now in pretty general uses 
though of more modern introduction, frém the writings of Lamark, Jussieu, Gartner, Will- 
denow, and others. Even his own emendations of the Linnzan system are mentioned only in. 
an eblique manner. What we have said above in praise of the language of this work must be 
understood to be meant of the physiological parts only, for most of the rest of the book seems 
to be rather hastily or carelessly composed. : 
NATURALIST’s MONTHLY REPORT. 
Jayvary. 
Reviving Winter Month. 
Reviving nature seems again to breathe, 
As loosened from the cold embrace of death. ‘ 
AJtTH respect’ to the weather, it has teen more changeable during this ménth that ¥ al. 
most ever recollect-it, in so short a space of time. We have had heavy fogs, wind, 
riin, snow, frost; and, for a day or two at the beginning, and again towards the conclusion 
of the month, it was as mild as it usually is at the commencement of spring. The fogs have 
been sucnthat, for nearly ten days, the sum was not once visivle. 
January 1. The redbreasts were singing almost the whole of this day; and, about noon, 
a butrerfly, which had been revived by the warmth of the sun from its torpid state, Was seen 
flying abroad. : hy é . 
Under a south wall I found this day, in flower, the Red Archangel or dead nettle (Lamium 
purpereum of Linneus), the daisy, chickweed, groundsel, and a single plant of the pilewort, 
or lesser Ceandine (Ranunculus fcaria), the latter, one of the earliest of the spring plants will 
not perhaps be in flower, in the hedge-bottoms, and other places where it is usually found, for 
yiear 4 month to come. ; 
During about ten days: ] was not once able, on account of the bad weather, to get into the 
fields. My report, for the present nsonth, must consequently be less complete than it might 
otherwise have been. 
January 11. Snow drops are in flower in the gardens; as are likewise primroses, daisies, 
and the double violet (viola odorata, fisre pleno). tii ~ibttili 
January 20, The blackbisd and thrush were b th heard to sing, — 
4 
