fore us. He has prefixed to it a sketch of Caledonian zoology, in which we should have traced- the hand of Mr. Pennant, though the preface had not informed us, that it was drawn up by that gentleman. We are farther told in this preface, that Mr. Pennant hath ushered this work into the world' at his fole expence, in the most friendly and difinterested manner. Mr. Lightfoot proceeds to give, a fketch of the contents of his own book, which is digefted according to the Linnæan method. From this account, favourable as it is ftated for himself, it evidently appears, that his own trouble was the least in the collection of the materials. Linnæus and Haller's works furnished him with what he has faid of the œconomical and medical uses of plants. The rev. Mr. Stuart, of Lufs, in Dumbartonshire, communicated to him the Erfe or Gaulic names, and the fuperftitious ufes to which the Highlanders put the plants of their native country. The rev. Dr. Burgess, of Kirkmichael, in Dumfriesshire, has furnished the flora of the Lowlands. Dr. Parfons, of Oxford, permitted his herbal to be examined, and his notes to be copied. Mr. Yalden, an unwearied naturalift, alfo offered his numerous discoveries to the author of the Flora Scotica; nor were the great botanical luminaries, Jofeph Banks, Efq. and Dr. Solander, deficient in affording affistance to the young botanist, whenever he was bewildered in the intricate mazes of fyftem. -The fhort characters of each genus are prefixed in Latin to each class, as they have been printed in the last edition of the Linnæan Syftem. At the head of each genus is placed its definition more at large, likewife in Latin, extracted from the Genera Plantarum of Linnæus. Under each genus are -arranged the feveral fpecies, with their trivial names, and fhort definitions, or, as Linnæus calls them, differentia Specifuæ, in Latin, copied from the Syftem. Then follow the resferences to other authors, the English, the Scotch, and the Gaulic or Erfe names, fo far as they are known and generally -received. To thefe are fubjoined each plant's particular place of growth or native fail; its duration, and time of flowering. After this Mr. Lightfoot adds a fhort defcription of each plant in English, in order, as he fays, to affift the Tyro or learner, for whom he affects to take peculiar pains, and of whom he often fpeaks with a fomewhat magifterial air. The class of cryptogamia, containing ferns, mushrooms, moffes, feaweeds, &c. feems to have engrossed most 'of his care, as it occupies almoft the whole second volume; and indeed he tells us, that the plants of this clafs coft more time and attention than all the other twenty-three.claffes together. 29. The The publication of the Flora Scotica contains five plates of birds, and thirty of plants, befides a figure of a plant on the title page of each volume, Thefe plates may poffibly be intended to afft the botanical Tyro, but there needs very little knowledge of botany to prove that in many cafes they will be more apt to miflead than to guide. The greatest part are better, or, at leaft, equally well drawn in Oeder's Flora Danica, and Haller's Stirpes Helvetica; and fome are evidently copied from thence, for inftance the Aragalus Uralenfis, the Rubus Chamamorus, and the flower of the Anthericum Calycula tum, and Epilobium Alpinum." Among the bad drawings we may fafely reckon the figures of Ruppia maritima, Saxifraga nidalis, Thali&rum Alpinum, Hieracium Alpinum, Serratula Alpina, Lobelia Dortmanna, and Ophrys Corallorhiza. Upon the whole, however, we may venture to pronounce the Flora Scotica a tolerable good caralogue of Scottish plants, which contains much ufeful inftruction for the student in botany. 8 Flora Londinenfis; or Plates and Defcriptions of fuch Plants as grow wild in the Environs of London, with their Places of Growth, and Times of flowering; their feveral Names according to Linnæus and other Authors: with a particular Defcription of of each Plant in Latin and English; to which are added their "Several Uses in Medicine, Agriculture, Rural Oeconomy, and other Arts. By William Curtis, Demonflrator of Botany to the Com pany of Apothecaries. Fafciculus I. Folio. 31. White. THE HE fcience of botany would foon become one of the most respectable branches of human knowledge, if it were not of fuch immenfe extent, that we have not hitherto been able to investigate any thing more material than the outward appearance of plants, without attending much to their qualities. A thorough acquaintance with thefe, would lead to the ufeful part of botany, and make it perhaps, like the other branches of natural hiftory, the most valuable of fciences. The period of time, however, feems to be faft approaching, when the vegetable creation will bet known in all its innumerable varieties, and when the enterprising fpirits of true philofophers will have traverfed the barren defarts of nomenclature, and expatiate with real pleasure on the rich and fertile fields of ufeful difcovery. It was not till aftronomy was eftablifhed on a firm bafis, that the art of navigation acquired the high degree of perfection which it boafts of at prefent, Botany is ftudied with much affiduity throughout the civilized world, fince the great Linnæus first facilitated our re fearches fearches into the ftores of nature, by inventing his perfpicuous methods, illumined by the bright beams of felf-created genius. We have feen the kings of France, Spain, Sardinia, Denmark, and England, fit out learned men, and fend them in pursuit of science to the remoteft corners of the world; we have seen one of our own countrymen, endowed by birth and fortune, forfake all these advantages, and hazard himself on a perilous navigation through unknown feas, in order to gather laurels on an undiscovered fhore; nay, we have heard of the difciples of the northern luminary, who, animated with the nobleft enthusiasm for their fcience, have won the crown of martyrdom by their indefatigable ardour. The names of Loefling, Haffelquift, and Forfkahl will be ever famous and ever honoured in the annals of this century. No part of botany can be more important and interesting to our countrymen, than that of our own ifland. The advan tages which may refult to England from the study of that fcience, muft naturally be looked for as arifing from the productions congenial to our foil and climate, fince the all-wife Creator doubtless allotted to each part of the world those species of vegetables which have a more immediate connexion with the rest of its physical constitution. Many are the authors who have written on this fubject; and fome among them, not without great merit and knowledge, have made our countrymen acquainted not only with the outward appearance, fcientifical defcription, and claflification of English plants, but have attempted alfo to give them an account of their uses, so far as they were known in a country, which bears the first rank in Europe in respect of the high perfection of its agriculture and rural œconomy. Mr. Hudson lately gave a comprehenfive view of English vegetables in his Flora Anglica, upon the principles of the Linnæan fyftem. His work, which was wholly written in Latin, was followed last year by Dr. Wither. ing's Botanical Arrangement of British Plants, rendered of more general ufe by being put into our own tongue, and divested even of those Latin terms, which must ever remain unintelligible to the unlettered farmer. It remained to illuftrate by good figures what had been so successfully begun. Mr. William Curtis, Demonftrator of Botany to the company of Apothecaries, formed a plan to draw and describe all the plants which grow in the environs of London, giving an account of their medicinal powers, and their uses in agriculture, rural œconomy, and other arts, as far as they are hitherto known, directing the farmer at the fame time when to expect their time of flowering, and remarking their places of growth. If a competent knowledge of the subject, joined to the most scrupulous attention, and and the most critical nicety, both in regard to the defcription and determination of the fynonyms of other authors, if these we fay, and the most elegant, accurate, and well-coloured figures of the plants themselves, can recommend his performance, we venture to affirm, that the botanical reader will miss none of thofe qualities in it, but perufe it with the greatest fatisfaction, and reap a ftore of real knowledge from it. The fize is royal folio, and each plant reprefented on a fingle plate, for the conveniency of binding them up in a fyftematical order, when the whole will be finished. Every fpecies is defcribed at large; and, in order to furnish our readers with a fpecimen of the manner in which Mr. Curtis treats his fubject, we have selected his account of the following. LONICERA PERICLYMENUM. BINE. HONEY SUCKLE OF WOOD LONICERA Linnæi Gen. Pl. Pentandria Monogynia. Raii Synopfis. Arbores & frutices fructu flori petaloidi contiguo. LONICERA capitulis ovatis imbricatis terminalibus, foliis omnibus diftinctis. Lin. Sp. Plin. 247. PERICLYMENUS Fufchii Icon 646. PERYCLYMENUM non perfoliatum Germanicum, Baubin pin. 302. CAPRIFOLIUM Germanicum Dodon. Gerard emac. 891. Parkinfon. 1460. Raii Synop. 458. Huafon Fl. So, Haller hift. 301. Scopili Fl. Carniol. p. 153. CAULIS lignofus, volubilis, orgyalis & ultra: cortice pallide fufco. RAMI oppofiti, purpurei. STALK woody, twining, growing to the height of fix feet or more, the bark a pale brown, the BRANCHES OPpofite and purple. FOLIA oppofita, ovata, glabra, LEAVES oppofite, oval, fmooth, underneath of a blue, ith colour. FLOWERS terminal, growing in a whirl, and fpreading: externally red, internally yellow, and fragrant. CÁLYX a Perianthium placed above the Germen, very fhort, divided into five fegments, which are of an oval pointed fhape, and upright, the two inferior ones moft remote from each other. FLORAL LEAVES laying one over the other, and closely embracing the Germina, redU bræ bræ, ut funt calyx, & tubi bafis pilis glanduliferis. LIMBUS COROLLA monopetala, tubu- STAMINA FILAMENTA natæ. PISTILLUM: GERMEN fubrotundum, inferum, STYLUS filiformis, Staminibus paulo longior. STIGMA capitatum, fubrotundum, trifidum, viride. PERICARPIA: BACC plu res, fubrotundæ, rubræ, umbilicata, biloculares, omnes diftin&tæ. SEMINA Plura, lutefcentia, hinc convexa inde plana, difh at the edges and covered as well as the Calyx and base of the tube with glandular bairs. COROLLA monopetalous, and tubular, the TUBE long, and fomewhat funnel shaped, the LIMB bipartite, the lacinia rolling back, the upper one divided into four blunt and nearly equal fegments, the lower one entire. STAMINA; five white FILA; MENTS, of an equal thickness throughout, longer than the Corolla and inferted into its tube, the Antheræ while they contain the Pollen oblong, afterwards femilunar and of a yellow colour. PISTILLUM: the GERMEN roundish and placed below the Calyx, the STYLE filiform, a little longer than the Stamina, the STIGMA roundish, trifid, and of a green colour, SEED VESSELS feveral roundifh red BERRIES, having the remains of the Calyx adhering to them, and all distinct, SEEDS feveral, of a yellowish brown colour, round on one fide, and flattish on the other. The early writers attributed virtues to this officinal plant which the latter have been inclined to give up; as a medicine we must not expect much from it, but the beauty, fingularity, and exquifite fragrance of its flowers have long given it a place in our gardens. It is a climber, and turns from east to west with most of our other English climbers, and in common with them it bears clipping and pruning well; for in a state of nature thofe plants that cannot afcend without twining round others, are often liable to lofe large branches, they have therefore a proportional vigour of growth to restore accidental damages. This plant is fubject, when placed near buildings, to be disfigured and injured by fmall infects called Aphides, or vulgarly blights; thefe animalcula were formerly fuppofed to be brought by the eaft wind, and confequently the mischief was poked upon as inevitable, but obfervation has of late years cor rected |