3. The botanical Aphorisms, in so far as they regard gene tic and specific distinctions, are well stated and illustrated, being chiefly borrowed from the Philosophia and Critica Betanica. We only wish that they had morcover embraced those principles on which are founded the orders and classes.

4. The Nomenclature presents us with an abridged view of the rules which are or ought to be observed in the formation of the generic and trivial names of plants, as they have been laid down by Linné and his followers.

5. Under Physiology, are noted the results of many curious and interesting experiments: but we are not satisfied that the Professor has succeeded in proving a genuine circulation of the vegetable sap, or in conveying to the tyro any very distinct notions of the different systems of vessels. We are more pleased with the ensuing enumeration of vegetable principles, most of which also occur in the animal kingdom:

1. Caloric, is present in all parts of vegetables, and constitutes their temperature when free.

2. Light, is found in the oils and other inflammable vegetable substances.

3. The electric fluid shows itself by various electrical phenomena observed in plants.

4. Carbon, is the chief constituent part of all vegetables.

5. Hydrogen. This may easily be obtained in a gazeous form, combined with caloric, from all leguminose plants.

6. Oxygen is, we shall soon find, evolved by the rays of the sun. Part of it, however, is combined with acidifiable bases and forms vegetable acids.

7. Azote, is exhaled by plants in the night; the greatest part of it however is in a combined state.

Whether azote belongs to the simple substances (elements), or as Goettling supposes, is a compound of oxygen and light, we must leave to the future decision of chemists. At present we shall consider it as a simple substance.

8. Phosphorus occurs in plants of the 15th class, and in the gramina. Its existence manifestly appears by the shining of old rotten wood, the root of the common Tormentilla recta, and of rotten potatoes, Solanum tuberosum, &c.

9. Sulphur, in form of acid combined with oxygen, is met with in many plants, either with potash, forming a sulphat of potash, or with soda, as sulphat of soda. Even in substance, sulphur has been found in the roots of the Rumex Patientia. After they were cut down, boiled and scummed, sulphur appeared in the scum when left to settle.

11. Soda is peculiar to almost all plants growing on sea-shores or in salt marshes.

12. Silica is found in the stem of the Bambusa arundinacea, and in the common reed, Arundo Phragmites. It is supposed to exist in

the alder, Betula Alnus, and birch, Betula alba, as their wood often emits sparks when under the hand of turners.

13. Alumina, it is said has been found in some plants.

14. Magnesia some philosophers think, they have met with likewise.

15. Barytes is chiefly obvious in grasses.

16. Lime is found in almost all vegetables, most frequently in Chara tomentosa, a pound of which is said to contain five ounces of

it.

17. Iron is detected in the ashes of most plants.

18. Manganese has likewise been sometimes found in plants *." The amount of some of M. Humboldt's experiments on germination is thus briefly but distinctly reported:

He found that oxygen proved an extreme stimulus to plants, and that without it they never can be brought to germinate. On this account germination went on quickly in metallic oxyds, especially in minium. In oil, on the contrary, carbon, hydrogen, in the filings of lead, iron, and copper, as well as in powdered molybdene and in alkalis, no one seed germinated. It soon occurred to him, that with oxygen as a stimulant he might forcibly make seeds germinate faster, and he actually found, that at the temperature of 20° Reaum. all seeds vegetated most rapidly when steeped in oxy muriatic acid. One instance only will suffice. The seeds of the Lepidium sativum germinated after 6 or 7 hours, when put into oxy-muriatic acid; whereas when lying in common water, they required from 36 to 38 hours. In a letter, dated February, 1801, he writes me, that in Vienna they found much benefit from the discovery of this fact, and that seeds twenty and thirty years old, brought from the Bahama islands, Madagascar, &c. which constantly refused to germinate, very readily, in this way, vegetated, and produced plants which grew up very successfully. The Mimosa scandens, which as yet is not to be found in any botanic garden, grew very well with this acid. As every gardener cannot obtain the oxy-muriatic acid, Mr. Humboldt proposes a very easy method to procure it without difficulty. He took a cubic inch of water, a tea-spoonful of common muriatic acid, two teaspoonfuls of oxyd of manganese, mixed it and placed the seeds in them. The whole was now allowed to digest with a heat of 18-30 Reaum. The seeds all germinated beyond expectation. It is necessary to take the seeds out, as soon as the corcle appears. That the seeds are

not impaired by the acid, is proved by the many plants which have been treated in this way, under the inspection of Mr. Jacquin, and

If some have detected gold in the vine, Vitis vinifera, oak, Quercus robur, hornbeam, Carpinus betulus, or in ivy, Hedera helix, and tin in Spanish broom, Spartium junceum, it seems merely to have been accidentally, as their presence has been stated as impossible by late experiments. Of the above principles, No 1-7, and 10, 16 and 17 are found in all plants, the rest only in some. The Fungi, especially the genera Peziza, Octospora, and Byssus have, according to the latest researches, not a vestige of lime.'

RIV. JAN. 1807.

in which vegetation goes on wonderfully well, though many of them had their seeds steeped in the oxy-muriatic acid.'

On the subject of vegetable generation, the Berlin Professor frequently refers to the amusing and instructive experiments of Sprengel and Koelreuter.

6. The next division contains a succinct account of the principal diseases incident to plants, and the most approved methods of cure, when these are known. This nosology comprizes Vulnus, Fractura, Fissura, Defoliatio notha, Hæmorrha gia, Albigo, Melligo, Rubigo, Lepra, Galla, Folliculus carnosus foliorum, Verruce, Squamationes, Bedeguar, Chlorosis, leterus, Anasarca, Phiriasis, Verminatio, Tabes, Debilitas, Suffocatio incrementi, Exulceratio, Carcinoma, Necrosis, Gangræna, Ustilago, Mutilatio, Monstrositas, Flos multiplicatus, Flos plenus, Fios deformis, Flos prolifer, Clavus, Sterilitas, and Abortus. The explanations of these maladies, and the modes of treating them, will not bear farther abridgment: but we are glad to see them formally introduced into an elementary treatise.

7. By the History of Plants, we are in this place to understand a comprehensive view of the influence of climate upon vegetation, of the changes which plants most probably have suffered during the various revolutions this earth has undergone, of their dissemination over the globe, of their migrations, and lastly, of the manner in which nature has provided for their preservation.' The intelligent reader will immediately infer that such topics invite to a more abundant display of fancy and conjecture than perfectly consists with a book of principles; and the author, accordingly, has not scrupled to blend theory with fact, and to digress into geological discussions which lie open to criticism. All the relevant matter, however, highly deserves the attention of the botanical

student.

8. The concluding part is necessarily limited to a very rapid sketch, and appears to be generally correct in regard to dates and assertions: but we have again to remark that the celebrated Jussieu, whose system has attracted so much notice on the continent, deserved more specific illustration than the mere insertion of his name among a crowd of writers less known to the world of science.-The anecdote relative to Boerhaave's Spinosism would require confirmation, and should not be circulated unless on good authority. We are well assured that this eminent Dutch Physician was a man of most exemplary piety. A typographical anachronism occurs in the notice of Tournefort, whose death is said to have taken place in 1788, instead of 1708. Other typographical errors are discernible, which are unnoticed in the Errata.

We

We cannot compliment the translator on the neatness or the accuracy with which he has executed his task. The aukward collocation of the members of his sentences, the strong savour of German idiom, and his improper use of auxiliary verbs, sufficiently intimate his imperfect acquaintance with the English language. In the following sentences, not only the expression but the meaning is singularly distorted: Not all plants do grow in earth, and therefore the root does not enter the ground. Sometimes the petioli of pinnate leaves, when they remain after the leaves have dropped off, become thorns, as in Astragalus tragacantha, and other species of that genus. On the peduncles they grow larger, sharper, and assume, after the flower and fruit have fallen off, the shape of thorns; for instance, hedysarum cornutum: or lastly, the stipula become sharp, ligneous, they remain and change into thorns, for instance in the mimosa.' The terms stipe, spathe, thyrse, rament, loment, grossification, &c. are uncouth and barbarous. Linnæus and Linné are used indifferently throughout the work; and the translator seems to have been ignorant that the D. prefixed to the Professor's name in German is equivalent to M.D. in our own language, and not the initial of a Christian appellation. In noticing such trifles we wish not to be reckoned fastidious: but we are solicitous to recommend uniformity and precision, even in the smallest matters, in every scientific publication that is destined for the perusal of the young. The ten plates which are subjoined to the present Introduction to Botany are well engraved, and form very suitable illustrations of the text: but we must object to the table of colours, on account of the very slovenly manner in which it is executed. If a second impression be required, we hope that the editors will profit by our well-meant suggestions: yet we are tempted to submit to their consideration, or to that of competent judges, the propriety of rather composing a separate work, more accurately arranged, and deduced from the best sources, both of a general and a particular description.

ART. III. Popular Ballads and Songs, from Tradition, Manuscripts, and scarce Editions; with Translations of similar Pieces from the antient Danish Language, and a few Originals by the Editor. By Robert Jamieson, A.M. and F.A.S. 2 Vols. 8vo. Il. IS. Boards. Edinburgh, Constable and Co.; London, Cadell and Davies. 1806.

IT

T is natural that a refined and philosophical nation should applaud the industry that is employed in rescuing from oblivion those relics of antiquity which record manners and cha

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racters

racters no longer within the reach of observation, and which add to its literature a species of poetry that civilized genius could never have created. We are not to wonder, also, that, when superior minds have discovered and begun to supply this desideratum, the subalterns in literature should crowd to the work, and soon afford a melancholy demonstration of their zeal and activity in an overwhelming multitude of unprofitable productions.

Some years have now elapsed, since eminent talents were first directed, in our own country, towards the traditionary compositions of our ancestors, and the long-unvisited hoards of our public libraries; and we have observed with pleasure, in the reception of their labours, such a general acknowlegement of their importance and interest as must insure the publication of all that is really precious in our remains of antiquity. The unfortunate effects of this study, however, have not yet been felt. It is but very lately that the present sentiment of these venerable memorials arose in the public mind, and as yet we possess little respecting them, except those works of taste and genius by which that opinion was established. Now, it exists in great strength; and the path to this department of literature is pointed out to those needy but ingenious men of letters, who eagerly flock to any new scene for the exertion of their predatory dexterity. They come, also, attended by that more honest, though not more productive class of authors who are destined, by a perpetual misconception of the prevailing taste, to annoy the world not less with their officious endeavours to gratify its desires, than their fellow-labourers by gratifying their

own.

We have no doubt that, if yet unexplored recesses still conceal many curious and important remains of antient times, which we shall one day gratefully receive from the hands of our more discerning antiquaries, they must include a much greater accumulation of matter from which no art can extort either utility or amusement; and which, long after we are completely versed in all the virtues and vices which our ancestors ever acted or thought, in all the combinations of syllables and configurations of stanzas which they substituted for metre, and in all the varieties of drivelling which they hoped were the effusions of poetry, will still continue to minister to starving or misguided industry the amplest materials of public suffering. Believing this, then, can we be deemed unreasonable in the apprehension with which we look forwards to the torrent of barbarous erudition, which, 'ere all its sources are exhausted, seems destined to inundate our literature?

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