the science towards perfection has amply justified the patronage it has received.

Having premised thus much, we now come to a consideration of the work before us. Professor Sprengel has long been known as a botanist, more deeply learned in the literature of the science than any person living. His Historia Rei Herbariæ, one of the most useful and excellent works the world ever saw, has proved him to be an accomplished scholar and judicious critic. Indeed, the learning and acumen displayed in that curious production, have rarely been equalled in any branch of literature. It is owing, perhaps, to this particular direction of his studies, that Professor Sprengel's reputation as a philosophical botanist has not kept pace with his celebrity as a scholar. While the work to which we have alluded, and some similar subjects of antiquarian research have given him a claim to the very highest place in the class of critical botanists, it cannot be concealed that his Introduction to Botany, and to the Study of Cryptogamous Plants, have hitherto fixed him in a much lower rank among practical and philosophical botanists; a rank from which neither his labours upon Umbelliferæ, nor the work under consideration, are, we feel bound to say, calculated to elevate him.

We are fully sensible how important are any attempts to extricate botany from the disorder by which it is now embarrassed, and we admit, most willingly, that the world is obliged by almost any attempts to bring the contents of the innumerable botanical works which have appeared within the last fifteen years into one view. Even the abortion of Römer and Schultes was in some degree useful; and the unpretending nomenclature of Dr. Steudel is of the utmost value; but when we place the work of Professor Sprengel by the side of De Candolle's Prodromus, the difference is too striking to allow us to overlook it.

The difficulties of any undertaking of the kind have now, however, become so great, that the utmost indulgence must be shown to any work possessing one half only of the merits of Professor Sprengel's. It is, indeed, delightful to see a man, fast hastening into the vale of years, and upon whose head the suns of more than sixty summers have already shone, boldly undertaking a labour which appears too mighty to be accomplished in the longest life.

(To be continued.)

ART. II. Gardening and Indigenous Botany.

It was our intention in this number to have commenced a regular analysis of the different works enumerated in our former article of this title; with the addition of Dr. Greville's work, before inadvertently omitted. But we were then in hopes that our Hortus Britannicus would have been published before this time. This not being the case, the delay affords us the opportunity of including in the Hortus all the species in the hitherto published numbers of the periodical works alluded to, and therefore, any farther notice of them at present is unnecessary. We have only to introduce to our readers the work of Dr. Greville, and some remarks on the Botanical Register and Botanical Magazine.

1. The Scottish Cryptogamic Flora. By ROBERT K. GREVILLE, LL.D. &c. Maclachlan and Stewart, Edinb.; and Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, Lond. 8vo.

It has been already stated, that one of the objects of the Gardener's Magazine is to form a continued record of all that is new or interesting in the periodical botanical literature of this country; and to render such a record a kind of perpetual supplement to the work now in preparation by the Conductor of this Magazine, under the title of the Encyclopædia of Plants, and an abstract of it under that of Hortus Britannicus. As these works will not only contain all the cultivated plants which have been from time to time introduced into our gardens, but will also comprehend the whole extent of the British Flora, including the lowest tribes of cryptogamic vegetation, it is impossible to omit a reference to the above truly admirable work of Dr. Greville upon the cryptogamous plants of Scotland; a work which may be honestly designated as so excellent, that nothing can be found to compete with it in the whole range of indigenous botany, except the new series of the Flora Londinensis; whether we consider the importance of its critical discussions, the accuracy of the drawings, the minuteness of the analyses, or the unusual care which is evident in the publishing department. After expressing this opinion, we are sure the work will need no further recommendation with the public. 2. Botanical Register and Botanical Magazine.

The following remarks have been sent us by a Correspondent.

"To those who bind up botanical periodical works in the order in which they are published, it matters not, if two pages of text are given on the same leaf, as it offers no inconvenience beyond that of throwing one of the plates to the right hand instead of the left; but those who prefer the

classical arrangement to the numerical, will find an insuperable obstacle to their plan, in this union of two species, unless the two species happen to belong to one genus, or to genera closely allied. In two instances, however, which we have observed, of this deviation from the general rule in the Botanical Register (viz. pp. 730. and 947.), this is not the case; and consequently, in a classical arrangement of the volumes in which they appear, two species of the four must, of necessity, be misplaced.

"Notwithstanding the laboured kind of defence which is set up at fol. 2005, of the Botanical Magazine, the subscribers to that work have quite enough to endure, in meeting with so many plants which have been before figured, in modern works of acknowledged accuracy, without their being presented with repetitions of the same plants in the Botanical Magazine itself; and whether every such repetition is accompanied with an apology (as at fol. 981.2313.2543, &c.), or is foisted upon them without one (as at fol. 2508. 2555. 2596.), they are, in this respect, to say the least of it, paying for a portion of matter which they ought not to be charged with."

The same correspondent regrets the prevailing propensity for the change of botanical nomenclature without sufficient reason, and instances Acacia Conspicua changed to A. Vestita. Bot. Reg. p. 698.

ART. III. Transactions of the Horticultural Society of London, Vol. V. Bulmer & Co. 1824.

(Continued from page 73.)

67. A Note on the Pears called Silvanges, and particularly on the Silvange Verte (Green Silvange). By M. Charles Francis Piérard, of Manjouay, near Verdun-sur-Meuse; Corresponding Member of the Horticultural Society. Read March 2. 1824. The name is derived from a hamlet on an antient road leading to Treves. There are four sub-varieties of silvanges, the early, the yellow, the long, and the green. The green is the best; all are rather tender, and require a good soil and a sheltered situation to ensure handsome and good fruit.

68. On the Preparation of Strawberry Plants for early Forcing. By Thomas Andrew Knight, Esq. F.R.S. &c. President. Read March 16.

Gardeners have two methods of preparing strawberries for forcing; one is to put the plants in pots a year or more before

they are set into the hothouse; another is, to lift them at once from the open garden with balls of earth, put them in pots, and immediately begin to force them. The latter method is generally preferred, as least expensive and troublesome. It is also Mr. Knight's method. În the course of his paper on the subject, Mr. Knight combats the opinion "that the minute fibrous roots of a plant, like its leaves, are organs of annual duration only." Willdenow and some others have affirmed this, but we believe it never was the opinion of practical gardeners, at least in this country.

69. On Transplanting Peas for early Crops. In a Letter to the Secretary. By Mr. Daniel Judd, F.H.S. 'Read March 26. 1824. Mr. Judd has been in the habit, for the last thirteen years, of transplanting his first crop of early peas, and also his first of large late peas. He generally sows in January in pots, and transplants from the beginning of February till the beginning or middle of March. The peas are turned out of the pots, and about two inches of the bottoms cut off, before the plants are separated. In parting them care is taken to keep them in tufts of about four or six plants, which are inserted in trenches, in rows, in the usual manner. A row planted in this way on the 3d of February was, on the 1st of March following, three inches high; while another by the side of it, sown in the natural way, and which had made its appearance above ground before the others were planted, were very little more than one inch high. Peas will come earliest in poor light soil, but the best crop will always be on light rich soil. 70. Some Account of the Edible Fruits of Sierra Leone. Drawn up by Joseph Sabine, Esq. F.R.S. &c. Secretary, from the Journal and personal Communication of Mr. George Don, A.L.S. Read March 18. 1823.

Mr. George Don, who was sent out by the Horticultural Society for the general object of collecting plants and seeds, happened fortunately to reside, some weeks, at Sierra Leone in the season when the fruits there, were for the most part in perfection. He arrived at Sierra Leone on the 18th of Feb. 1822, and quitted the colony on the 11th of April following, and his information, added to that of Mr. Brown of the Banksian library, and some previously published documents, has enabled Mr. Sabine to give some account of the following fruits of Sierra Leone and its vicinity.

Sarcocephalus esculentus, a fleshy fruit, the size of a full grown peach. The plant grows vigorously in the stove, and is readily increased by cuttings. Plants of it may easily be procured from the London nurserymen.

Anona Senegalensis, the African custard apple, about the size of a pigeon's egg.

Adansonia digitata, monkey bread; fruit large, oblong, farinaceous, tasting like gingerbread.

Inga biglobosa, locust tree; the pods contain a farinaceous substance enveloping the seeds, similar in flavor to the monkey bread, and eaten by the negroes.

Country cherries; the species producing them unknown. Anisophylleia laurina, monkey apple; the size of a pigeon's gg, and in flavor between a nectarine and a plum.

Vitis cæsia, country grapes; small, austere, and acid; the plant in some degree herbaceous.

Country currants, resembling elderberries; the plant probably an Antidesma.

A

Ficus Brassia, in memory of Mr. William Brass, a collector in 1782 and 1783, who sent it from Cape Coast. large fruit, like the white ischia fig.

Small fig, species not known.

Psidium pyriferum, wild guavas, rather smaller than the guavas of the West Indies.

Spondias myrobalanus, hog-plum; the tree like an ash; the fruit the size of a wallnut; in taste and consistency not unlike our common plum.

Parinarium excelsum, rough-skinned plum; a timber tree, with fruit like the imperatrice plum, in size and shape; the skin rough and greyish, and the pulp dry, farinaceous, and insipid.

Parinarium macrophyllum, ginger bread plum; the fruit twice the size of the last; grown on a very handsome shrub. Chrysobalanus ellipticus, small pigeon plum, about the size of a large damson.

Chrysobalanus luteus, yellow pigeon plum; shaped like an Orleans plum.

Sugar plum, of the size of the bullace plum, growing on a plant which throws out roots from its stem, from the height of upwards of ten feet, like a mangrove or a pandanus; by which singular character it may be distinguished at a considerable distance.

Vitex umbrosa, black plum; the tree resembles the horse chesnut; the fruit was not seen by Mr. Don.

Carpodinus dulcis, sweet pishamin, a climbing shrub, with fruit resembling a lime.

Mammea Africana, mammee apple; a lofty timber tree, with fruit the size of a man's fist, and of equal excellence with the West India mammee.

Pentadesma butyracea, butter and tallow tree; a timber tree