in books by her own hand. In fhort, fhe has exceeded all my hopes and requited my fondeft wishes about her; and I will not imagine this defcription to be tedious to you, because I am fure the friend will feel and read with pleasure, what the father feels with tranfport, and writes with truth." Towards the latter end of 1759, he relapfed into a state of infanity; and expired on the 2d of November, aged 50. "His official difpatches are written with great life and fpirit; he delineates characters with truth and facility; and defcribes his diplo matic transactions with minuteness and accuracy, but without tedioufnefs or formality.. "The verfes of Sir Charles Hanbury Williams were highly prized by his contemporaries, and the letters of his friend Mr. Fox, abound with extravagant commendations of his poetical talents; but in perufing those which have been given to the public, and those which are ftill in manufcript, the greater part are political effufions, or licentious lampoons, abounding with local wit and temporary fatire, eagerly read at the time of their appearance, but little interefting to pofterity. Three of his pieces, however, deferve to be exempted from this general character; bis Poem of Isabella, or the Morning, is remarkable for ease of verfification, and happy difcrimination of character; his Epitaph on Mr. Winnington is written with great feeling; and his beautiful Ode to Mr. Pointz, in honour of the Duke of Cumberland, breathes a spirit of fublimity, which entitles the author to the rank of a poet, and excites our regret that his mufe was not always em ployed on fubjects worthy of his talents. Sir Charles left by his wife two daughters, Frances, first wife of William Anne late Earl of Effex, and Charlotte, who efpoufed the Honourable Robert Boyle Walfingham, youngest fon of the Earl of Shannon, a Commodore in the navy." Such is the nature of this work, in which the student will find various information, and the man of taste an entertainment congenial to his feelings and pursuits. ART. II. Phytologia, or the Philofophy of Agriculture and Gardening, with the Theory of draining Moraffes, and with an improved Conftruction of the Drill Plough. By Erafmus Darwin, M.D. F. R.S. 4to. 612 pp. 1., 11s. 6d. Johnfon. 1800. IN a fhort Introduction, of little more than one page, Dr. Darwin informs his readers, that his object is to attempt a theory of vegetation, deduced principally from the experiments of feveral eminent perfons, fuch as Hales, Grew, Malpighi, &c. Whoever contemplates the works of nature; whoever attempts to enumerate and to defcribe the multitude of natural objects objects which frike the human fenfes on every fide, is unavoidably forced to remark, and to acknowledge, an indefinite gradation of bodies differing in form, power, magnitude, and other properties. But while he admires their variety and their powers, while he endeavours to comprehend their structure and their dependence, he seeks in vain for the beginning, and for the end of the feries; he attempts, without effect, to difcover any precife limits between its parts; for who can perceive and defcribe the primitive particles of matter, or who can fay which is the most complicated body of the creation? Where is the real limit between animals and vegetables, and which is the philofophical distinction between the human and the inferior fpecies? Yet human induftry has attempted, with useful effect, to dif tinguish the animal from the vegetable, and thefe from other objects; has fubdivided each of thofe grand divifions into leffer parts, and has affigned to each certain characteristic distinctions, which render the attainment, and the communication of natural knowledge, eafy and determinate. But thofe artificial diftinctions of an uninterrupted feries are unavoidably defective, fince they prefcribe limits to what has no known limits; they define what is incapable of any precife definition. Hence, between the bordering limits of any two contiguous claffes or divifions, fome equivocal objects do neceffarily exist, and which may be faid to belong to either of the claffes, or to none. Hence alfo is derived an inexhaustible fource of difpute, of declamation, and of pedantic remarks. But whoever wishes to preferve order and perfpicuity, whoever is a true lover of knowledge, will naturally ftrive to adhere to the fcientific diftinctions, as being the only means of rendering ourselves intelligible; and will, at the fame time, avoid all fuch equivocal words, or ftrained meanings and expreffions, as can only be productive of doubt and confufion. The author of the work, which is at prefent under our examination, has evidently paid little attention to the abovementioned neceffary precaution; nor is this defect compenfated by an adequate quantity of new matter, or useful knowledge. We fhall, however, as far as it is in our power, endeavour to lay before our readers fuch paffages, and fuch remarks, as may enable them to form an adequate idea of the work; giving first a general view of its contents. This work is divided into three Parts, the contents of which are as follows: Part I. Phyfiology of Vegetation. Set. I. Individuality of the Buds of Vegetables: II. Their Abforbent Veffels. III, Their Umbilical Veffels, Se&t. IV. Their Pulmonary Arteries and Veins. IX. The Growth of Seeds, Buds, and Bulbs. XIV. Difeafes of Plants. Part III. Agriculture, and Horticulture. XVI. Production of Seeds. XVII. Production of Roots and Barks. XIX. Production of Flowers. XX. Plan for difpofing a Part of the Syftem of Linneus into more natural Claffes and Orders. Appendix.-Improved Conftruction of the Drill Plough. In the first fection, this author afferts that plants are inferior animals; that every bud of a tree is an individual vegetable. being, and therefore a tree is a family or fwarm of individual plants, like the polypus with its young growing out of its fides, or like the branching cells of the coral-infect. 86 In the inoculation," he fays, and ingrafting of fruit-trees, five or fix different kinds of pears are frequently feen on the branches of one tree, which could not then properly be termed an individual being." In fupport of thofe affertions, Dr. Darwin adduces a variety of obfervations, or rather verbal than phyfical diftinctions. He also specifies the difference between animals and vegetables in the following words. "As vegetables are immovably fixed to the foil, from whence they draw their aliment ready prepared, and this uniformly, and not at returning intervals; it follows, that in examining their anatomy, we are not to look for muscles of locomotion, as legs and arms; nor for organs to receive and prepare their aliment as a mouth, throat, ftomach, and bowels, by which contrivances animals are enabled to live many hours without new fupplies of food from without. "The parts, which we may expect to find in the anatomy of vege tables, which correfpond to thofe in the animal economy, are firft a threefold fyftem of abforbent veffels, one branch of which is defigned to imbibe the nutritious moisture of the earth, as the lacteals imbibe the chyle from the stomach and intestines of animals; another to imbibe the the water of the atmosphere, opening its mouths on the cuticle of the leaves and branches, like the cutaneous lympathic veffels of animals; and a third to imbibe the fecreted fluids from the internal cavities of the vegetable system, like the cellular lymphatics of animals. "Secondly, in the vegetable fetus, as in feeds or buds, another fyftem of abforbent veffels is to be expected, which may be termed umbilical veffels, as defcribed in Sect. III. of this work, which fupply nutriment to the new bud or feed, fimilar to that of the albumen of the egg, or the liquor amnii of the uterus; and also another system of arterial veffels, which may be termed placental ones, correfponding with those of the animal fetus in the egg or in the womb, which fupply the blood of the embryon with due oxygenation before its nativity. "Thirdly, a pulmonary fyftem correfpondent to the lungs of aerial animals, or to the gills of aquatic ones, by which the fluid abforbed by the lacteals and lymphatics may be expofed to the influence of the air. This is done by the leaves of plants, or the petals of flowers; thofe in the air refembling lungs, and thofe in the water refembling gills. "Fourthly, an arterial fyftem to convey the fluid thus elaborated to the various glands of the vegetable for the purposes of its growth, nutrition, and fecretions; and a fyftem of veins to bring back a part of the blood not thus expended. "Fifthly, the various glands which feparate from the vegetable blood the honey, wax, gum, refin, ftarch, fugar, effential oil, and other fecretions. "Sixthly, the organs adapted to the lateral or viviparous generation of plants by buds, or to their fexual or oviparous propagation by feeds. "Seventhly, longitudinal muscles to turn their leaves to the light, and to expand or clofe their petals or their calyxes; and vafcular mufcles to perform the abforption and circulation of their fluids, with their attendant nerves, and a brain, or common fenforium, belonging to each individual feed or bud; to each of which we shall appropriate an explanatory section." P. 5. And further on he says; "Now as the internal pith of a bud appears to contain or produce the living principle, like the brain and inedulla oblongata, or spinal marrow of animals, we have from hence a certain criterion to diftinguish one bud from another, or the parent bud from the numerous budlets, which are its offspring, as there is no communication of the internal pith between them." P. 8. At the end of this fection the reader is inclined to afk, what can all this mean? The fecond fection contains a variety of obfervations, the importance of which may be gathered from the following quotations. After defcribing how the absorbent veffels of plants may be rendered vifible, namely, by placing twigs of a fig-tree, or of B BRIT. CRIT, VOL. XVIIÍ, JULY, 1801. feveral feveral other plants, for a fhort time in a decoction of log-wood, or madder, &c. and then viewing them through a common magnifying-glafs, he fays, "Thefe abforbent veffels have been called bronchia by Malpighi and Grew, and fome other philofophers, and erroneoufly thought to be air-velfels; in the fame manner as the arteries of the human body were fuppofed to convey air by the antients, till the great Harvey by more exact experiments and jufter reafoning, evinced that they were blood veffels. This opinion has been fo far credited becaufe air is feen to iffue from wood, whether it be green or dry, if it be covered with water, and placed in the exhaufted receiver of an air-pump; and thefe veffels have therefore been fuppofed to conftitute a vegetable refpiratory organ; but it will be fhewn hereafter, that the leaves of plants are their genuine lungs, and that the abforbent veffels and arteries become accidently filled with air in the dead parts of vegetables. "For as the veffels of vegetables are very minute, and have rigid coats, their fides do not collapfe when they are cut or broken, as their juices flow out or exhale; they must therefore receive air into them." P. 12. "There are nevertheless certain horizontal veffels of large diame ter, which pafs through the bark of trees to the alburnum, which probably contain air, as they are apparently empty, I believe, in the living vegetable; for the bark of trees confifts of longitudinal fibres, which are joined together, and appear to inofculate at certain diftances, and recede from each other between those distances like the meshes of a net, in which spaces feveral horizontal apertures are feen to penetrate through the bark to the alburnum, according to Malpighi, who las given a figure of them, which is copied in Plate I. Fig. 2. of this work. Very fine horizontal perforations through the bark of trees are also mentioned by Duhamel, which he believes to be perfpiratory or excretory organs, but adds, that there are others of much larger diameter, fome round and fome oval, and which in the birch-tree ftand prominent, and pierce the cuticle or exterior bark." P. 13. "Thefe horizontal veffels I fuppofe to contain air inclosed in a thin moist membrane, which may ferve the purpose of oxygenating the fluid in the extremities of fome fine arteries of the embryon buds, in the fame manner as the air at the broad end of the egg is believed to oxygenate the fluids in the terminations of the placental veffels of the embryon chick." P. 14. "The absorbent veffels of vegetables, like those of animal bodies, are liable to err in the selection of their proper aliment, and hence they fometimes drink up poisonous fluids, to the detriment or deftruction of the plant. Dr. Hales put the end of a branch of an apple-tree, part of which was previously cut off, into a quart of rectified spirit of wine and camphor, which quantity the ftem imbibed in three hours, which killed one half of the tree. Veg. Stat. p. 43. Some years ago I fprinkled on fome branches of a wall-tree a very flight folution of arfenic, with intent to destroy infects; but it at the fame time destroyed the branches it was thrown upon. And I was informed by Mr. Wedgewood, |