on various occasions have been more neatly executed, but most of them sufficiently serve the purposes of illustration.

On the many points in which the author concurs with other eminent phytologists, we forbear to touch; both because, in the midst of the multifarious claims which press on our notice, we are desirous of avoiding a repetition of former reports, and because our readers would be little edified with the frequent recurrence of definitions and references to plates: but we may be allowed to advert to a few of those particulars in which the present writer has reckoned it incumbent on him to assert his own sentiments, which he seldom does on light or trivial grounds. We may premise, also, that the volume consists of eleven lectures; and that the heads of the principal topics are, the rise and progress of botany, its usefulness and the method of studying it, the plan of the course, the definition of a plant, general view of the vegetable functions, composition of the vegetable structure, vegetable organization, the root, soils, and manures, medicinal and dietetical properties of roots, the stem, its organization and anatomy, branches, leaves, and their constitution, and appendages of the stem and leaves.

In his acute attempts to trace the lines of discrimination between the vegetable and animal kingdom, Dr. Thomson justly demurs to the unqualified assertion of Mirbel, that plants possess the exclusive property of deriving nourishment from inorganic matter.

This remark,' he says, is, certainly, exceedingly ingenious and plausible; but it contains an assumption which cannot be admitted to the extent required; for, if by inorganic matter is to be understood simple earths and salts, which do not form parts of decaying organized bodies, the observation is not just; nor can we allow that airs are taken in as food by plants. What soil can be found composed of simple earths devoid of animal and vegetable matter in which plants will grow? And it is well known that the presence of a large quantity of salts, even of those kinds which, in small quantities, promote vegetation, is more likely to kill plants than to serve as nourishment to them. A plant, it is true, may be reared in pure water, or in pure powdered flints moistened with water; but in this case the water is the support of the vegetable; and we know that many animals, the Infusoria, for instance, are nourished and supported apparently in water alone. As this fluid is the universal solvent, whatever it contains in solution may be. taken up by the vegetable vessels; and the experiments of Sir Humphrey Davy have proved that even distilled water may contain both saline and metallic impregnations; hence we can conceive from what source the alkalies, salts, metallic oxides, and earths, even silex, which are found in vegetables, have been derived; but that these are directly taken in as nourishment by plants is not more likely, than that lime, which forms so large a

portion

portion of the animal structure, is, in its uncombined state, the food of animals. Salts serve to stimulate plants, and, by exciting the action of their irritable fibres, promote their health and growth; part of them are taken up along with the soluble vegetable matter contained in the soil, and disposed of in the economy of the plant, either in the simple state in which they were absorbed, or forming new compounds, generally neutral salts; and this is regulated by the peculiar nature of the plant, independent of any properties of the soil in which it grows. The same effect is produced on animals, by the saline matters taken into their stomachs along with their food. Some of the lower animals, as earth-worms and other species of the vermes, feed on vegetable and animal matters which have undergone decomposition, and returned to that state in which they are generally found in soils. Vegetables, therefore, in common with these animals, although certainly in a more striking manner, have the power of recombining and assimilating into organized bodies those materials which the loss of vitality had allowed to be separated by the chemical affinities of their constituents, or to be decomposed, but are incapable of transforming matter, which has never formed any part of organized bodies, into their own living organized substance. If these observations be just, the remark of M. Mirbel cannot serve as the means of distinguishing animals from vegetables; or of forming a correct definition of a plant.'

We think that the author is equally successful in combating the Linnéan doctrine, which assigns to each species of plant the precise description of food that suits it, and no other; for such as are raised in distilled water, or in pounded flints, still secrete their appropriate juices, characterized by their baneful or noxious qualities: a fact which is more correctly referable to the agency of the vital principle than to any exercise of volition. Again, he clearly shews that Mirbel and others have too often confounded the proper juice of plants with their secretions: the latter, no doubt, proceed from the former: but they undergo much elaboration, and are probably effected by means of glands, so that we may meet with both essential and aromatic oils in some parts of the same plant, and with mucilage, resin, tannin, alkalis, acids, &c. in other parts.

6

As a striking instance of the propagation of a truly natural layer, we are referred to the Banyan, or Ficus Indica. From the branches of this tree, fibres are thrown out, which hang suspended like icicles, and grow thicker as they reach the surface of the ground, into which they strike root and become trunks, the branches of which root again in the same manner; and this progression of increase is continued until the ground is covered to a prodigious extent with an umbrageous labyrinth or grove, formed from one original trunk, impenetrable

to the sun-beams.* One of these trees, called Cubber Burr, situated on an island in the river Nerbedda, exceeded 2000 feet in the circumference of its shade; and in 1787 had 350 trunks. Religious festivals were held under its luxuriant canopy, which was capable of affording shelter from the solar heat to 7000 persons.'

The considerate observations on soils and manures, and on the growth of the annual and concentric zones of wood, which are manifested in the transvere sections of some trees and shrubs, will amply reward the trouble of perusal. After having exposed the various opinions concerning the peculiar functions of the pith, Dr. T. concludes, with much plausibility, that this organ is destined, in the first instance, to afford the surface necessary for the formation of the first layer of wood; and, 2dly, to give a degree of firmness to the succulent stem and recent shoot, which they would not otherwise possess, before the bark and alburnum acquire sufficient consistence for that purpose.'- His views of the important process of budding, too, appear to accord better with the facts observed than the conflicting statements of some of our most distinguished phytologists. Without minutely discussing his reasoning on this interesting topic, we may give a summary of its results in his own words.

1. That every branch originates in a bud or germ. 2. That every bud or germ is a distinct isolated individual, the lateral progeny of the plant, and generated at the first development of the stem or branch on which it appears; but, after some time, increasing by its own organic powers it forms a branch, and becomes a part of the tree or shrub which has produced it. 3. That every adventitious bud, or bud appearing at any after period, originates in a germ generated at the development of the stem or branch on which it appears, although it has hitherto remained latent. 4. That every latent germ is annually carried forward, in a horizontal direction, through every concentric zone of wood, intermediate to the medulla and the surface on which it will sprout into a branch; leaving behind it a substance of a peculiar structure, somewhat resembling a white cord penetrating the ligneous zones, by which its progress can be traced. 5. That every branch when fully developed, displays the same structure as the

stem.'

In opposition to Bonnet, and others, the author has been induced to believe that the cuticular apertures of the leaves of plants are respiratory organs; for he argues that they are

Pagodas are generally built in the neighbourhood of these trees; and under their friendly shades the Brahmins and devotees perform their religious rites.'

never seen on leaves which are not exposed to the air; and that, in those cases in which leaves are wanting, analogous pores are present on the stem. - Dissatisfied, likewise, with the causes which have been assigned for the opening and closing of the pitcher in Nepenthes, he is disposed to think that the heavy evening dews are the remote cause of the opening of the lid; and that the rising and falling of the latter are entirely mechanical, and dependant on the hydroscopic motions of the ring which forms the lip of the vessel.

With regard to the fluid found in these vegetable pitchers, the most probable opinion is, that it is obtained from the atmosphere, and is intended for the nourishment of the plant; for we can scarcely suppose that so large a quantity of moisture can be thrown out as an excretion, in a plant growing in the dry sterile situations where Nepenthes is found, and for the sole purpose of drowning a few insects. Rumphius indeed observes, that the insects which crawl into the pitcher all die, "except a small squilla or shrimp, with a gibbous back, sometimes met with, which lives there;" but it does not appear that putrefaction goes on in these pitchers, and the constant renewal of the water is, certainly, not favourable to this process."

As a literary production,' the present volume is somewhat deficient in correctness and sprightliness of style: but, as it contains much useful information, we trust that its reception may be such that it will stimulate the author to persevere in the prosecution of his design,

ART. X. Picturesque Tour through the Oberland, in the Canton of Berne, in Switzerland. Illustrated by Seventeen Coloured Engravings, and a Map shewing the principal Mountains and Glaciers. Imperial 8vo. pp. 120. 17. 8s. Boards. Ackermann.

1823.

TH

HIS is certainly an elegant publication: the engravings are very pleasingly colored, to exhibit the entire effect of nature; and the letter-press, which is full and satisfactory, will be found exceedingly useful to the tourist, as it gives him the distances from place to place, the best mode of travelling, and the ordinary expences, &c. It also points out to him not only the best course, and such occasional deviations as it is desirable to take, but directs his attention to the most striking objects of nature and art. As Swisserland may be denominated an epitome of Europe in the beauties and sublimities of nature, so the Oberland is pronounced to be an epitome of Swisserland; in visiting which the traveller will find, within a small compass, all that is calculated to gratify, to delight, and to astonish. It is no slight recommendation, moreover,

of this excursion to the High Alps, that there is no other which can be performed with more convenience and less fatigue; for the tourist may proceed to the very foot of the glaciers of Grindelwald in a carriage; and, when he has traversed the route pointed out, he will not quit the Cantons (says the writer) without having enjoyed some of the most enchanting as well as the most aweful scenes which nature there presents to the contemplative eye.

The traveller who sets out on his tour of the Oberland, from Berne, may easily procure in that city all that is requisite for his journey: but different persons will, of course, take more or less time, according to circumstances. Those who have nothing to consult but their own convenience may devote three or four weeks to the excursion, without finding any want of interesting objects to engage their attention: but it may be very well effected in a fortnight. June, July, and August are the best months for the excursion: but, as June is too often rainy, the latter months are preferable. - Young travellers, with ardent imaginations and romantic feelings, are exceedingly prone to run into rhapsody and bombast in their descriptions of mountain-scenery: like the air which they breathe on these high summits, their thoughts are rarefied; and the common weight of language is an incumbrance to them. The effects of the oxygen, which they inhaled at an elevation of ten or twelve thousand feet, seem to remain even after their descent into the valley; for they are apt to talk wildly, and of unearthly visions which they beheld in these aerial regions.

A work like the present is essentially descriptive, and pure description is perhaps one of the most difficult departments of composition. Its difficulty consists, first, in giving such a distinctness of outline to the objects described, that the image of them shall be clearly brought before the reader's mind; and, secondly, in preserving the relative proportions, the perspective, as it were, of each,-filling up the outline with natural and chaste colors, and with a due attention to lights and shadows. We could select from the pages before us descriptions which are somewhat vague and confused:, but many others bring the beauties of the scene before us, and have the merit of distinctness and simplicity. The account of the magnificent waterfall of the Staubbach is of this number :

What peculiarly distinguishes the fall of this torrent is its upper part, which exhibits the appearance of a glistening scarf, blown about by the wind, and incessantly changing its direction and its form. At the moment when the water is poured from the channel, the wind seizes and carries away several small rills, too