1847] Botanical Geography. 877 It is wholly inapplicable to natural history, for the reasons so admirably given. by Ray, and is contrary to all experience. If the groups limited by M. Alphonse De Candolle himself are examined by this standard, they alone suffice to demonstrate how visionary are such expectations. would be very convenient to find his views practicable, but in truth they are quite Utopian." We may refer also to Mr. Bentham, in the London Journal of Botany, 4, 232, who "has satisfactorily answered the learned Botanist of Geneva." On reference to Professor Griesbach's Reports, on the Contributions to Botanical Geography, the amount of the late expenditure of labour upon the subject in question can be fairly judged of, and it is with great satisfaction we can refer to the publication of a translation, by Margaret Johnston, of Meyen's Outlines of the Geography of Plants, by the Ray Society last year. In this interesting work will be found considered the conditions of climate which determine the presence and distribution of plants, and by which the soil influences their station, &c. The Physiognomics of Vegetation, the Statistics of Plants, and the History of Cultivated Species, employed as necessary foods, useful as luxuries, and as used in the manufacture of stuffs and materials indispensable to man, are treated of in detail, and there is prefixed an Introduction to Botanical Geography, with a list of the principal works which have appeared on the subject since Alexander de Humboldt's Essai sur la Geographie des Plantes, accompagnée d'un Tableau Physique des Regions Equinoxiales, Paris 1805, 4to. We add the following remarks in connexion with the work of Meyen, as the subject is one of considerable interest at the present time. In 1812 an attempt was made to draw attention to the value of the cultivation of Maize, or Indian Corn, the Zea Mays of Botanists, by Parmentier (Le Maïs ou Blé de Turque a Paris 1812), and M. F. de Neufchateau followed with a Supplement to the above work in 1817. Within the last few months, the same endeavours have again been made, and hopes have been held out that the cultivation amongst us of this cereal grass may in future diminish the risks attendant upon the exclusive cultivation of the potatoe, and the cereals usually grown. How far this is true is doubtful. According to some there is a particular line on the Continent of Europe, north of which maize will not thrive. It will not ripen its grains on poor land or without attentive cultivation, the land must be naturally fertile or made so by art, and, as it could not be safely sown in England before the middle or end of May, in many seasons it could scarcely be expected to ripen its seeds before the winter frost set in. The time of flowering is said also to be very critical to the maize plant, a cold damp atmosphere often causing a great part of the crop to fail, and of all the cereals which are grown by various nations, none except the rice is so unequal in its products. It is stated by Baron Humboldt, that on the same soil, the produce of a grain will vary from 40 to 200 or 300 fold, according to the variation of the moisture and mean temperature of the year, and its culture has the advantage and disadvantages of the vine.— Meyen remarks— "Maize thrives best in the hottest and dampest tropical climates; there are some places where it brings forth 800 fold; in less fertile lands, the produce is 300 or 400 fold, and 100 fold is looked on as a poor crop of the grain in tropical climates. Maize is less productive in the temperate zone, the average yield in California, between the latitudes 33° and 38° is not greater than 70 fold. In yet colder countries the yield is still smaller, and our cereals gradually supersede the maize, this is the case in Chili, where maize is grown as a vegetable only, and wheat is used as bread. We do not know the exact polar limits of maize culture in the New World yet, so much is certain that they lie in the 40th parallel; even in the southern hemisphere where, particularly in Chili, from many causes, the climate is much lower in proportion to the latitude, the maize is cultivated as low as 40°. On the western coast of Europe maize is grown in 45 north latitude; on the Rhine to 49°, and in our country even in 52°. Large and abundant crops are raised in gardens, yet with us there is little taste for this fine grain, and therefore its culture is neglected. Maize is only grown to adorn our gardens, and the rich produce is given to cattle in Germany. Maize is most extensively cultivated in the rich valley of the Rhine, known by the name of the Bergstrasse, but this district is also the warmest in all Germany. "At the present day maize is cultivated in all the countries of the tropical and temperate zones which European civilization has reached; it cannot, however, supersede the culture of the earlier cultivated cereals." Dr. Lindley and Sir W. T. Hooker have done more for the advancement of botanical science in this country amongst the general body of naturalists, than has been effected by the conjoint labours of all other men. The former, by his able writings on its great principles, whether applied to the structure, function, or the systematic grouping of plants, as also by his efforts as an oral preceptor; the latter, by the valuable aids he has afforded to the practical botanist by his minute investigations into the Flora of our own land, and the production of the best work on the numerous species which flourish in it. We have other great names it is true, and men whose reputations are deservedly spread far and wide. But they have not had the fortune to be able, or the inclination to appeal so much to the popular and every-day requisitions of the mass, as those we have particularly alluded to. They have done so, and by their labours have not only met the exigencies which existed, but at the same time have almost reorganised the aspect of botanical science, have bestowed a new phase upon their favourite study, widely extended its boundaries, endowing it with a comprehensive purpose and philosophic character meeting with the general acceptance of the best authorities of the present day. With the public at large the study of and the patronage given to the investigation of the wonders of the vegetable world must be, by the most enthusiastic of admirers, confessed to be extensively bestowed. Our botanic and horticultural gardens, our flower-shows, our repeated sales of foreign bulbs and plants are proofs of this, together with the numerous works on botany and vegetable physiology for young persons, mainly the results of the labours of delicate and feminine hands. To Mrs. Loudon in particular we stand much indebted. We have but to call to mind the beautifully illustrated works published by Mr. Lovell Reeve and Mr. Van Voorst to be satisfied how much is expended both by the public and publisher. The student of medicine is now amply supplied with works not only evincing the advanced condition of botanical science, but the desire of adapting it to his special wants and requisitions. The course of lectures upon it, which he is desired by the governing bodies to attend, is a most necessary and valuable introduction to the higher department of the history of the structure and functions of the human body. The names of 1847] Natural and Artificial Systems. 379 Roxburgh, Wallich, Griffiths, Royle, and of others, will prove to him how available in a foreign climate may be the exact botanical information he can, whilst a student at home, so easily obtain, and how bitterly he may rue, perhaps at some future day, the want of that knowledge which at present is so readily at his command. It has been often urged that the difficulties required to be mastered before the professional student is able to avail himself of the advantages of the Natural system in interpreting "the hidden characters with which Nature has labelled all the hosts of species which spring from her teeming bosom" are great in the extreme, and scarcely within the scope of a limited period of study, or that they present more obstacles in overcoming than the fundamental doctrines of other branches of natural science. "But of that difficulty it may be observed, in the first place, that it is only such as it is always necessary to encounter in all branches of human knowledge, and secondly, that it has been much exaggerated by persons who have written upon the subject without understanding it. "It has been pretended that the characters of the natural classes of plants are not to be ascertained without much laborious research, and that not a step can be taken until this preliminary difficulty is overcome. But it is hardly necessary to say that, in natural history, many facts which have been originally discovered by minute and laborious research, are subsequently ascertained to be connected with other facts of a more obvious nature, and of this botany offers perhaps the most striking proof that can be adduced. "It is true that careful observation and multiplied microscopical analyses have taught botanists that certain plants have spiral vessels and others have none, but it is not true that in practice so minute and difficult an enquiry needs to be instituted, because it has also been ascertained that plants which bear flowers have spiral vessels, and that such as have no flowers are usually destitute of spiral vessels, properly so called; so that the inquiry of the student, instead of being directed in the first instance to an obscure but highly curious microscopical fact, is at once arrested by the two most obvious peculiarities of the vegetable kingdom." If, however, the distinctions of classes and sections in the so-called artificial systems are simple and easy to remember, in the determination of more subordinate groups as of genera, the difficulties are far greater by these than by the natural methods now adopted for arranging plants. This fact Jussieu long ago remarked, and shewed that, whatever trouble is experienced in remembering or applying the characters of natural orders is more than compensated for by the facility of determining genera, the characters of which are simple in proportion as those of the orders are complicated. But, as Dr. Lindley remarks: "All considerations of difficulty ought to be put aside when it is remembered how much more satisfactory are the results to which we are brought by the study of Nature philosophically, than those which can possibly be derived from the most ingenious empirical mode of investigation." In the work of Dr. Lindley, to which we now especially direct the attention of the reader, we find the results of the most extended practical knowledge of the systematic portion of the science of botany, and of the writings of other labourers, both of this country and the continent. Results developing themselves so admirably in relation to the necessities of the student, whether we regard what he should learn or how he should learn it, and information of the highest value even to the most advanced in knowledge, made so easily accessible, demand at our hands unqualified praise. In fact, we hesitate not in saying that the publication of the more than 900 pages before us will form quite an epoch in the Bibliographia Botanica of the day. No pains or expence appear to have been spared in the mechanical production of the work, the illustrations are admirable, often exceedingly picturesque, and the whole book a monument to the credit of one of the most pains-taking of men. The general intention of our author will be seen by the following extract from the Preface :— "Its object is to give a concise view of the state of systematical Botany at the present day, to show the relation or supposed relation of one group of plants to another, to explain their geographical distribution, and to point out the various uses to which the species are applied in different countries. The names of all known genera with their synonymes are given under each natural order, the numbers of the genera and species are in every case computed from what seems to be the best authority, and complete indices of the multitudes of names embodied in the work are added, so as to enable a Botanist to know immediately under what natural order a given genus is stationed or what the uses are to which any species has been applied. Finally, the work is copiously illustrated by wood and glyphographic cuts, and, for the convenience of students, an artificial analysis of the system is placed at the end." The Introduction of the work is taken up with an able exposition of the various Natural Systems proposed by botanists from the time of Ray1703-to the present time, concluding with the classification proposed and followed by the author himself, together with a review of those principles which should guide us in the formation both of the greater and minor groups of the vegetable world. The grand object of the author next follows-the consideration in detail of the numerous natural classes into which he divides the 92,000 plants known existing. This portion of the work may be said to consist of two great divisions; one in which the Asexual or flowerless plants are included, the other whose aim is the elucidation of the various tribes of the Sexual or flowering ones. Preceding each subdivision-such as of THALLOGENS ACROGENS, &c. &c. will be found an able resumé of the general structure and habits of the plants typical of those of the various groups which follow, and we would particularly draw the attention of our readers to the value of the method adopted to afford at a glance the indication of affinities, which consists in printing at the end of the list of genera the name of the Order under discussion in capital letters; placing right and left of it, in small Roman letters, the names of those orders which are supposed to be in nearest alliance to it; and above and below it, in Italic type, the names of such as are only analogous, or at least have a more distant affinity. Dr. Lindley has borrowed this idea from the paper of Mr. Strickland, on the True Method of discovering the Natural System in Zoology and Botany, printed in the 'Annals of Natural History, Vol. VI. p. 184. We entirely agree with Dr. Lindley as to the propriety of omitting any discussions on the proximate principles and ultimate chemical constituents of plants. These are truly questions of pure chemistry and not of botany, have no relation to any known principles of botanical Systema 1847] Vegetable Chemistry, Terminology. 381 tology, and more than-one half of the daily discovered vegetable products are nothing but the manufactures of the chemist's laboratory. Should information connected with the subject, however, be required by the botanist, he will find much in the writings of Mohl and Payen, and in the Reports of Dumas, Pelouze, and Adolphe Brogniart, abstracts of which will be found also in the volume of the Ray Society for 1845, in Link's Report on the Progress of Botany. Upon these matters truth obliges us to remark that, it is a stumbling-block in the way of advance, yet needed in this department of science, that men famous in different branches of knowledge should be jealous of each other's reputation. We quote the following remarks of Schleiden from Link's Report above alluded to. "On reading the good-for-nothing opinions of Berzelius and Liebig respecting Schwann's discoveries with regard to the (Gährungspilz) fungus fermentation, one would suppose that these gentlemen had never heard of such a thing as a microscope. On hearing Berzelius speak of Schwann's frivolousness we do not know what to say to such absurdity. I should sincerely congratulate the science of chemistry if Berzelius had always instituted his researches with a circumspection so thoroughly founded upon elaborate knowledge, and a profundity combined with so much modest doubt in his own powers as to screen him from the influence of preconceived opinions as Schwann has done. Did not the first hundred pages of the sixth volume of his Chemistry occur to Berzelius when writing these words, and produce a blush of shame in him for such a judgment?" -(Dr. Lancaster's Translation.) Whilst so freely according the most merited praise to the author of the Vegetable Kingdom, we must unite with those who disagree with him in the attempt to introduce the fashion of Anglicising Latin and Greek names in the manner he seems to have so much at heart. We deny that it is an available or a useful project, the more especially so in a work confessedly scientific, as the one before us must be held to be, however much it is intended at the same time, to diffuse a knowledge of plants throughout general society. Some of our scientific names, undoubtedly, are bad enough, and made up of bits from all sorts of languages-witness such terms as Kraschenninikovia, Andrezijofskia, and others; but, as a general rule, they are quite as euphonious as those proposed by Dr. Lindley for the English scholar, and more acceptable to the systematic botanist. We find nothing very mellifluous about such words as Helwingiads, Turnerads, Artocarpads, or Cedrelads; in fact, we hold Turneracea, Artocarpacea, and Cedrelaced to be infinitely their superiors-so also we prefer Algacea for Algals, and others we could name. The student of medicine will find ample description of the uses and properties of the more important plants, which are arranged under the various natural families, described in the work before us, and considerable research appears to have been bestowed upon this portion of our author's labours. Occasionally, however, we meet with something which makes the professional reader smile-such as "Solanum dulcamara, the bitter-sweet, is a strong narcotic in its foliage, and its berries are by no means safe, although it does appear that in some cases they have been taken into the stomach without inconvenience.-Solanum nigrum, a very common weed in all parts of the world, except the coldest, is more active. A grain or two of the dried leaf has sometimes been given to promote the various NEW SERIES, NO. X.-V. D D |