LER ;* and the plants of different portions of SouthAmerica, by PLUMIER, AUBLET, Mad. MERIAN, Don Ruiz, Don PAVON, and others; and of the South-Sea Islands, by the indefatigable Dr. FORSTER, whose Nova Genera Plantarum may be considered one of the most valuable additions made to botanical science since the time of LINNEUS.

The catalogue of plants enumerated by the great botanist of Sweden last mentioned, amounted to about ten thousand. Of these he actually described about eight thousand. The number since discovered and added to the list is very great. Besides the numerous discoveries of new plants by some of the celebrated systematic writers before mentioned, M. COMMERSON, of France, in the course of his circumnavigation with BOUGAINVILLE, found near fifteen hundred new species. M. DOMBEY, of the same country, and Don MUTIS, of Spain, discovered a still greater number in South-America. M. DESFONTAINES brought to light near four hundred non-descripts, found in Africa. Dr. SIBTHOR P brought two hundred new species from the Archipelago; Professor THUNBERG six hundred from Japan; M. SWARTZ more than eight hundred from the West-India Islands; and M. MICHAUX more than four hundred from the Levant, Persia, and North-America. To these may be added the several thousands brought from almost every quarter of the globe, by Sir HANS SLOANE, Messrs. LAGERSTROEM, OSBECK, TOREN, and DAHLBERG, Dr. SOLANDER, Dr. SPARMAN, Sir JOSEPH BANKS, Dr. FORSTER, and a long catalogue of modern circumnavigators and travellers, insomuch that the species now known and described considerably exceed twenty thousand!

An Account of some of the Vegetable Productions naturally growing in America, by MANASSEH CUTLER, D. D. Memoirs of the American Aca demy of Arts and Sciences, vol. i.

I See BERKENHOUr's Synopsis of Natural History, 2 vols. 12mo. 1789.

To the details above stated, it is proper to subjoin, that the eighteenth century has been productive, beyond all former precedent, of great elegance in the execution of drawings and descrip tions of plants. These are too numerous, and too well known to render any particular account of them necessary here. It is sufficient to say, that all the means of communicating a knowledge of botany, whether we refer to the convenient nomenclature" now in use, to the modern concise and intelligible style of description, to the splendid representations of nature, by means of accurate figures and coloured plates which every where assist the student, or to the multiplication of Botanic Gardens," and of Herbaria, as appendages to seats of science, they may be said to have reached a stage of improvement, within a few years, which the human mind never before contemplated. The recent exhibition of the Linnæan system by Dr.

m CONDORCET, in his Panegyric on LINNEUS, expresses himself thus:"LINNEUS has been reproached with having rendered too easy the nomen clature of botany, and occasioned thereby the appearance of a great number of small works. This objection seems only to prove what progress botany has made under him. Nothing, perhaps, evinces better how far a science is advanced, than the facility of writing books of mediocrity on such a science, and the difficulty of composing works which contain novelty of matter." STOEVER'S Life of Linnæus.

n

Though Botanic Gardens have been greatly multiplied, during the last century, in Europe, by scientific individuals, and by seminaries of learning, our own country has never been able to boast of a single establishment which deserved the name. This deficiency is now likely to be in some measure supplied, so far as it respects the State of New-York, by the laudable zeal of Dr. DAVID HOSACK, Professor of Botany in Columbia College. This gentleman has lately purchased ground for a Botanic Garden, in the vicinity of the city of New-York; and is going on, at his own expense, to furnish it with the necessary stores of indigenous and exotic plants, for rendering it an useful and ornamental institution. It is to be hoped that his exertions will be seconded by public aid; and that the State of New-York, already eminently distinguished for its rapid progress in wealth and improvement, will not suffer the weight of supporting such an establishment to fall on an individual, who, after all his care to accomplish himself for this branch of instruction, in a foreign country, and his zeal in forming the best private botanical library in the United States, cannot be expected to devote all his resources to an object which ought to be fostered by public munificence, and cherished as one of the honours of the State,

THORNTON, Of London, is not only highly honourable to himself and his country, but probably, also, in superb magnificence and accuracy, without an equal on earth.

MINERALOGY.

This department of natural history has, also, within the period under review, passed through various revolutions, and received numerous improvements equally fundamental and important. From the time of ARISTOTLE, the first distinguished mineralogist, to that of BECHER, a learned German, little had been done in this science, except bringing together, and gradually increasing, a wilderness of facts, without system or order. BECHER, toward the latter end of the seventeenth century, turning his attention, with zeal, toward this subject, became the father of regular mineralogy. After him a number of adventurers in this field of inquiry appeared, but they did little more than make large collections of mineral substances, and class them according to the old rules. Among the principal of these were HIERNE, a Swede, who gave an ample and very valuable account of the fossils of his own country;-WOODWARD and CHARLETON, English naturalists, who made curious collections and enumerations of mineral specimens ;-and BRACHMEL, of Sweden, who threw much new light on this kingdom of nature, as it appeared in that part of Europe. To these succeeded LINNEUS. This great man proposed a new classification of mineral bodies, and was the first who distri

• This is the opinion of Dr. DARWIN, whose taste or information on this subject will not be questioned. Phytologia.

WOODWARD instituted a professorship of mineralogy about the year 1720, in the University of Cambridge, to which he left his collection of minerals as a legacy.

U

buted them into classes, orders, genera, and species. But his arrangement was essentially defective. He divided substances chiefly according to their external appearances, such as figure, colour, hardness, and other sensible qualities, and, of course, threw together the most heterogeneous and opposite kinds. He devised specific names, however, of great excellence; and he is entitled to much honour for his concise and elegant sketch of the Sara, which had been little noticed before.

LINNAEUS was followed by his countryman, WALLERIUS, who, in 1747, published an important mineralogical work, in which he adopted the Linnæan system, with considerable alterations. and improvements, by himself and the learned BROWAL, Bishop of Abo. About the same time: VAUGEL, a respectable philosopher of Germany, presented to the public a new system of mineralogy, of considerable value. In 1748 appeared the voluminous work of Dr. HILL, which was important, as it gave a general account of the fossils of England; but his perplexed and barbarous nomenclature rendered it much less useful than it might otherwise have been. Soon afterwards the inquirers and publications in mineralogy began greatly to multiply, especially in Germany and Sweden, which, from the abundance of their mineral riches, have long presented peculiar encouragements to the study of this kingdom of nature.

Hitherto little or nothing had been done in the investigation of minerals through the medium of chemical analysis. External characters continued to form almost the sole ground of distinction and arrangement. HIERNE and BRACHMEL had, indeed, some time before, suggested the plan of form

q See the Preface to CRONSTEDT's Mineralogy, by MAGELLAN. The above mentioned work of WALLERIUS was republished, about twenty-five years afterwards, with great and splendid improvements.

ing a mineralogical system on chemical principles; but they did nothing more than suggest it. MARGRAAF and PoгT, two illustrious mineralogists of Berlin, seem to have been the first who instituted, with any remarkable success, this kind of inquiry. Their numerous and well directed experiments were generally made by means of heat, and, according to the language of chemistry, in the dry way. About the same time, NEUMANN, a philosopher of Germany, distinguished himself by investigating the nature of mineral substances by means of acid menstrua, or in the moist way. These inquiries opened a new and most interesting field in this science, led to many important discoveries, and may be considered as one of the grand æras in natural history.

It was in this stage of mineralogical improvement that FREDERIC CRONSTEDT, a nobleman of Sweden, and superintendant of the mines of that country, published a most incomparable work, exhibiting the elements of this science, in an arrangement singularly clear, determinate and perspicuous.' This distinguished mineralogist assumed Mr. Port's facts, but improved much upon his labours. He adopted a method of classification chiefly chemical. He appears to have derived a considerable portion of his knowledge from VAN SWAB, one of the masters of the mines, whose name is little known in the scientific world, though he communicated much information to almost all the eminent naturalists of that country, who flourished during his time.

Though PorT and MARGRAAF did much in the chemical analysis of minerals, and shed new light

WALLERIUS pronounced this work opus sine pari. It has passed through many editions; has been translated into most of the European languages; and is still considered as one of the best elementary works on mineralogy extant.