Rebounding from the ground with many a shock The naves of the round wheels. They therefore toil'd Achiev'd they, but a doubtful strife maintain'd. Was plac'd in open sight, insculpt of gold : These glorious works had Vulcan artful wrought.' Upon the whole, we are difpofed to give .Mr Elton credit for confiderable fkill in verfification. Indeed, though his tranflation is clofe, fometimes too close for perfpicuity, it seems at least equal to the original. His blank verfe, in which he excels more than in the couplet, is of a good structure; bearing a general, but not fervile refemblance to Milton, with a little caft of fome of Mr Southey's peculiarities of expreflion, and some of the daring expletives of Cowper. The notes appear to be chiefly compiled from the various editors of Hefiod; but fome of the extracts from Bryant's Mythology might have been omitted without injury. If the conjectures of that fcholar were as folid as they are ingenious, they are still but part of a great fyftem of erudition, and feem mifplaced by way of illuftrating a fingle poet. ART. VIII. An Introduction to Physiological and Systematical Botany. By James Edward Smith, M. D. F. R. S., &c. &c., Prefident of the Linnean Society. 8vo. Edition. Longman & Co. London, 1809. * PP. 557. Second IT T is not very long fince we took occafion to lay before our readers an account of an elementary treatise on botany by Profeffor Willdenow, of Berlin. We are now to make them acquainted with a fimilar book, of home manufacture; and, as we fincerely think, of ftill higher pretenfions. Its author is not merely the Prefident of the Linnean Society, as announced in the titlepage, but he is the poffeffor of the herbarium, library, and manufcripts of Linnæus himself. He is alfo the author of the Flora Britannica, perhaps the most complete and correct catalogue and defeription, ever publifhed of the plants of any country. He is, befides, the author or editor of an elegant book on foreign plants, entitled Exotic Botany; and he has published the first part of a Flora Greca, from materials left by his lamented friend Dr Sibthorpe. It is evident, that the habits and experience which are neceffarily implied in the compofition of fuch works, must have *Vol. xi. p. 73, et seq. given given Dr Smith peculiar advantages for the task which he has now undertaken; and when it is considered that he has alfo, for several years paft, alternately filled the botanical chair at Liverpool, and at the Royal Institution, London, and must therefore have studied the beft means of conveying popular information on the fubject, it is impoffible not to feel, that an elementary treatife, from his pen, if executed in a manner worthy of himself, muft prove a very acceptable prefent to all lovers of the fcience; and that an elaborate apology for multiplying such books, was fomething more than unneceffary from fuch a quarter. The work, accordingly, we obferve, has already reached a fecond edition, and appears to us to deferve a pretty full analysis. The first chapter treats of the diftinction between animals, vegetables and foffils, and of the vital principle effential to the two former.' The author opens this trite, but fomewhat perilous fubject, with remarking, that thofe who, with a philofophical eye, have contemplated the productions of nature, have all, by common confent, divided them into three great claffes, called the Animal, the Vegetable, and the Mineral Kingdom;' and that these terms are ftill in general ufe; and the moft fuperficial obferver must be ftruck with their propriety.' The old fyftematical writers, no doubt, employed this threefold divifion; but of late we have heard more of a fourth clafs, propofed, we believe, feveral years ago, by an acute and learned Profeffor in this Univerfity, to be called the Gafeous Kingdom; an addition which feems to be rendered indifpenfable by the wonderful progrefs of discovery in pneumatic chemistry. Superficial obfervers' we may poffibly be accounted by Dr Smith; but we fhould like to know in which of his three great claffes he would arrange those things called Hydrogen, Azote and Carbonic acid, about which he tells us fo much in the courfe of his phyfiological chapters. He appears to be duly aware of the wonderfully close analogy between the vegetable and animal creation; but, in ftating the claims of the former, while he paffes over in filence the Linnean dogma, Vegetabilia, corpora non fentientia,' he avoids the oppolite extreme of the author of the Phytologia, and contents himself with this modeft query, May not the exercife of the vital functions of plants be attended with some degree of fenfation, however low, and some confequent fhare of happiness?' We are fo far from objecting to the moderate poftulate that is here made in behalf of vegetables, that we would anfwer, with our ingenious countryman Smellie,-that life, without some degree of sensation, is an incomprehenfible idea. The plants which exhibit the greatest fenfibility to external impreffions, are the Mimofa fenlitiva and pudica, Hedyfarum gyrans, Oxalis fenfitiva, and Smithia fenfitiva, H 4 all all of which have pinnated leaves. An impreffion made on one of the leaflets is communicated in fucceffion to all of them n; evincing,' in Dr Smith's opinion, an exquifite irritability; for it is in vain to attempt any mechanical folution of the phenomenon.' • The Hedysarum gyrans has a spontaneous motion in its leaves, independent of any external stimulus, even of light; and only requiring a very warm, still atmosphere, to be performed in perfection. Each leaf is ternate; and the small lateral leaflets are frequently moving up and down, either equally or by jerks, without any uniformity or cooperation among themselves. It is difficult to guess at the purpose which this singular action is designed to answer to the plant itself: its effect on a rational beholder cannot be indifferent. Like all his predeceffors, Dr Smith finds it exceedingly difficult to lay down a fatisfactory criterion between animal and vegetable life. He is extremely delighted, however, with a remark of M. Mirbel, * which we hall lay before our readers, because the Doctor has declared that it exhibits a criterion to which he has in vain fought any exception. Plants alone,' fays M. Mirbel, have a power of deriving nourishment, though not indeed exclufively, from inorganic matter-mere earths, falts or airs; fubftances certainly incapable of ferving as food for any animals, the latter only feeding on what is or has been organized matter, either of a vegetable or animal nature: fo that it fhould feem to be the office of vegetable life alone, to transform dead matter into organized living bodies. We are not fure but the vulgar and well-known fact, of gold-fifhes, leeches, and fome other animals, continuing lively and vigorous for great lengths of time, when confined in jars filled with pure fpring water, is fufficient to invalidate M. Mirbel's hypothefis; for thefe animals feem to poffefs the power of deriving nourishment from inorganic matter. But, fuppofing M. Mirbel perfectly accurate, we are certainly far from regarding this as a teft of eafy application. It is evidently affumed, that we are always able to diftinguish between the pabulum arifing from the decompofition of organic, and that arifing from inorganic matter. But this will, in very many cafes, be found no eafy tafk; and, indeed, will generally be quite impracticable when the pabulum prefents itself in the gafeous form; and the infufory animalcula (if they be admitted to rank as animals) can scarcely be fuppofed capable of receiving aliment in any other form. Further, if plants alone have the power of deriving nourishment from inorganic matter, mere earths, falts and airs,' it is rather puzzling that those airs and salts which have been confidered as conftituting the prin *In his Traité d'Anatomie et de Physiologie Végétales. cipal cipal food of plants, fhould in reality arife chiefly from the de-. compofition of organic matters. We doubt much whether M. Mirbel's conclufion, that it is the office of vegetable life exclufively to transform dead matter into organized, be more admiffible: for we have always confidered it as more than probable, that the numerous tribes of corals muft derive the means of forming their items and branches (which in the tropical feas are of great fize, and, confidering the minutenefs of the polypi, of a magnitude almoft incredible) entirely from the calcareous matter held in folution in the waters of the ocean; and we think no one will difpute, that the quantity of lime found diffolved in the fea, can proceed only from the conftant abrasion and decompofition of the great chains of inorganic' calcareous rocks along which it inceffantly washes in different quarters of the globe. We did expect that the great proportional abundance of nitrogen or azote in animal substances, would be fixed on as one mean of distinction. Accordingly, we find that this fact, though not directly stated, is indirectly alluded to; and is in reality the teft to which the practical naturalift is ultimately referred. The fimple expedient of burning,' fays Dr Smith, will decide the queftion. The smell of a burnt bone, coralline, or other animal fubftance, is fo peculiar, that it can never be mistaken, nor does any known vegetable give out the fame odour.' (p. 6.) This expedient of burning is, it must be confefied, a very compendious inethod of folving a difficult problem. In a fcientific book, however, it might have been explained, that the peculiar fmell here alluded to, is principally that of ammonia or volatile alkali; and that this ammonia is fuddenly generated by the azote (which, as already noticed, is abundant in all animal fubftances) being here prefented to hydrogen in a nafcent ftate. It is, however, to be remembered, that fome vegetable products, fuch as the gluten. of wheat, caoutchouc, and the juice of the papaw-tree, give out, in burning, nearly the fame peculiar fmell afforded by animal matter. Of all the products of the vegetable fyftem,' fays Mr Murray, the juice of the Carica papaya is the one which approaches most nearly to animal matter; and it might indeed be regarded as a variety of it, if its origin were not known. Expofed on burning fuel it diffufes a very fetid ammoniacal odour, as animal substances do.' * In the fucceeding chapter, we have a definition of natural history, and particularly of botany,' and then fome remarks on the general texture of plants. Botany is divided into three branches: ft, The phyfiology of plants, or a knowledge of the ་ ftructure System of Chemistry, vol. iv. p. 170-1. 1st edit. frncture and functions of their different parts: 2dly, The fyftematic arrangement and denomination of their feveral kinds: and, 3dly, Their economical and medical properties.' The tabular and cellular texture of vegetables is illuftrated by a plate copied from Mirbel's Treatife already mentioned; the figures in which, we agree with the Doctor in regarding as incomparably more accurate than the microscopic delineations of Grew or Malpighi. We now enter on a general view of the vegetable body, beginning at the external part, and proceeding inwards. Chapter third, therefore, treats of the cuticle or epidermis.' The term cuticle, the author feems to confider as having been borrowed by the anatomist from the botanift: we should rather suspect the plagiarism to lye the other way. But however this may be, the cuticle covers every part of the plant: it is nearly an incorruptible fubftance: it is probably deftitute of the vital principle: it is porous in a greater or lefs degree in different plants: it is colourlefs: it is often clothed with a fort of wool or hair; and it guards the plant against the undue action of the atmosphere. The analogy between the animal and the vegetable cuticle is particularly infifted on. In the former, it varies in thickness from the exquifitely delicate film which covers the eye, to the hard skin of the hand or foot, or the far coarfer covering of a tortoife or rhinoceros; in the latter, it is equally delicate on the parts of a flower, and scarcely lefs hard on the leaves of the pearly aloe, or coarse on the trunk of a planetree. * It forms in the vegetable, as well as the animal, a fine but effential barrier between life and destruction.' Below the cuticle, we find the cellular integument,' the tissu herbace of Mirbel, fo named from its green colour. It is fo far analagous to the rete mucosum of anatomists, that it is in general the feat of colour. But the analogy can be traced no farther; for, in the cellular integument, the principal changes operated upon the juices of plants by light and air, and the confequent elaboration of all their peculiar fecretions, take place.' Though this organ is of fuch importance in the vegetable ecenomy, little attention has been paid to it till of late. Indeed, we recollect to have been taught, that it was probably only of fome ufe in maintaining the fucculence of the parts within!-We now get on to the bark. Along with M. Mirbel and many botanifts, we have been accuflomed to fpeak of the cuticle and the cellular integument as forming parts of the bark; and what Dr Smith here emphatically distinguishes * By Plane tree, in Scotland, it may be remarked, is invariably understood the Acer pseudo-platanus, Great Maple or Sycamore: the plane-tree here alluded to by Dr Smith, however, must be either the Platanus occidentalis or orientalis; probably the former. |