We are much gratified with the appearance of this little flora. It is really an uncommonly neat, useful, and convenient performance; and, we have no doubt, is by far the most elegant and creditable botanical work, if not the only one, published in any small town in America. To a country town, we would not think of looking for such a production; but in fact, the county of Chester has, of late years, made very considerable advances in science and literature. It has produced a public library, and perhaps others with the existence of which we are not acquainted, several botanical and mineralogical collections, a very respectable series of essays on its history, similar to Mr. Jefferson's notes on Virginia, schools, teaching the higher branches of the English mathematics, and one of those partly literary newspapers which have recently sprung up among us.
The above title considerably explains the nature and extent of the work. Of its scientific accuracy, sufficient time has not yet elapsed to form an adequate judgment; but we observe that the author has had the frequent assistance of Baldwin, Collins, Steinhauer, Torrey, and Schweinitz: so that, if the maxim "noscitur a socio" be at all applicable in the present case, it is evident that he has been in the very best botanical company which our land affords.
The work is executed with very great neatness, such as would do credit to the press of a metropolis, and is really wonderful for a moderate sized village, and for the disturbed life of a country physician, its author. There is also a great deal of that kind of popular explanation, which so agreeably relieves the repulsiveness of dry works on natural history: such as the familiar names of the plants; the derivations of the names of the genera, designed to assist the student in remembering them, by enabling him to associate some idea with them; occasional comments on their uses and injurious effects, &c.
We may add, that from the close proximity of Chester County to Philadelphia, extending to a large part of the line of the Schuylkill, this little work will answer extremely well for common use around this city, with the single exception of the sands of New-Jersey.
Memoir on the Topography, Weather, and Diseases of the Bahama Islands. By P. S. Townsend, M. D.—New-York, 1826.
The New-England Journal of Medicine and Surgery, and Collateral Branches of Science. Conducted by Walter Channing, Jr. M. D., and John Ware, M. D. No. 2. Vol. XV.—Boston, April, 1826.
The American Medical Review, and Journal of Original and Selected Papers in Medicine and Surgery. Conducted by John Eberle, M. D., Nathan Smith, M. D., George M'Clellan, M. D., and Nathan R. Smith, M. D. No. 1, Vol. III.—Philadelphia, April, 1826.
The Medical Recorder of Original Papers and Intelligence in Medicine and Surgery. Conducted by Samuel Colhoun, M. D. No. 2, Vol. IX.—Philadelphia, April, 1826.
The Philadelphia Journal of the Medical and Physical Sciences. Edited by N. Chapman, M. D., W. P. Dewees, M. D., and John D. Godman, M. D. No. V. New Series.—Philadelphia, May, 1826.
The New-York Medical and Physical Journal. No. 17. Edited by John B. Beck, M. D., Daniel L. M. Peixotto, M. D., and John Bell, M. D.—New-York, April, 1826.