ACCEPTABLE as we conceive such a catalogue as this must be to the Amateurs of painting, Mr. Britton will probably excuse us for giving it an approbation rather more qualified than that which we have bestowed on his " architectural antiquities."

In describing the collection at Cleveland House, Mr. Britton proceeds according to the numbers on the pictures, through the New Gallery, the Drawing-Room, Anti-Room, or Poussin Apartment, PassageRoom, Dining-Room, second AntiRoom, the room which is called the Old Gallery at the west end, and the small room at its east end: containing a series of two hundred and fifty two pictures. The labelled number, with the artist's name in capital letters, precedes the title or subject of each painting, which is followed in a smailer letter in most instances by a comment, descriptive in some cases, and critical in others.

Among the pictures which are

best described we reckon "the Wise-Mens' offering," by Peruzzi; "the Good Shepherd,"by Grimoux, after Murillio; the "Upright Landscape," by Gasper Poussin; the paintings of the " Seven Sacraments," by Nicols Poussin, and the "Diana and Acteon," by Titian.

But there are a few instances in which we think Mr. Britton indulges too much in reflections which do not bear upon the subjects before him; we particularly instance the numbers, 43 and 46: and we regret this the more, as the extent of the disquisitions in the early part of the catalogue has occasioned the subjects of the Pictures in the Old Gallery, except in a few instances, to be only mentioned

At the end are some observations on the Pictures of Ostade, from the pen of Humphrey Repton, Esq. and an alphabetical index of the artists whose works are found in the collection.

ART. I. An Introduction to KURT SPRENGEL, D. M. the German 8vo. pp. 410. FROM the title of this valuable work it might be supposed to treat of all the orders and genera of cryptogamous plants; this how ever is by no means the case; the volume before us only comprehending the Filices, Musci and Alge terrestres, with the exception of the genus Byssus. The epistolary form has been adopted by Dr. Sprengel, against which manner of treating scientific subjects, which peculiarly require order, method, and precision, we should here enter our decided protest, if it were not that, with the exception of the subdivisions of the book being named letters instead of chapters, and "my dear young friend" occurring perhaps half a dozen times in the first fifty pages, the student would never suspect that he was perusing any other than a truly methodical and strictly scientific treatise. We shall therefore without further preliminaries proceed, to give as detailed an analysis on this excellent work as our limits will allow.

The first letter is introductory; slightly discusses the essential character of the class cryptogamia, and assigns valid reasons for acquiescing in that given by Linnæus, though by no means entirely satisfactory.

The second letter treats of the Filices, with regard to the places of their growth; shews that the number both of genera and species is greater in tropical than in cold

in Letters. By Translated from

countries, and concludes that "the Ferns, next to the Palms, are the tenderest fosterlings of nature, and stand the most in need of her parental care." To this conclusion of our author we have two objections to make, one in point of fact, and the other in point of senti ment. We are accustomed, however incorrectly, to call those plants and animals tender, which cannot subsist in the atmosphere in which we ourselves are used to live, and as the conquests and connexions of Europeans are principally in countries warmer than our own, we are obliged, in order to preserve alive the plants and animals that we impor, to have recourse to various precautions for guarding them against cold. But the polar bear or Norway pine can no more endure the heat of India, than the cocoa palm or humming-bird can exist within the arctic circle, and therefore each may with equal propriety be said to be tender. the wisdom and benevolence of the great Creator, whose tender mercies are over all his works, fosters with the same kindness, and feeds with the same liberality every class and mode of life that he has been pleased to call into existence.— With regard to the assertion, that the Filices are more peculiarly natives of hot countries than any other natural family of plants, except the Palms, its correctness may

But

surely be called in question, when we recollect that of the natural families of Scitamineæ, Cucurbitaceæ, Piperitæ, Myrtacea, and Succulenta, the former is wholly confined within the tropics, and of the rest very few species are natives even of the south of Europe.

The third and fourth letters describe the structure and economy of the roots, stems, and leaves of the Filices; which, though containing much curious and interesting matter, will not detain us, except to mention that the loose kind of calyptra which covers the extremities of the fibrous roots of the Filices (and is also found in the palms) has been discovered by our author to be composed of absorbent papillæ, analogous to the ampullæ in the villous coat of the intestines of warm blooded animals.

The fifth letter treats of the "impregnation of the Ferns, and the generation of their seeds." It gives a brief, though satisfactory historical summary of the opinions and discoveries on this disputed topic from the time of Bock or Tragus to the present day, and records some observations of Dr. Sprengel himself, from which it appears that the seeds of Athyri um Filix fæmina are probably dicotyledonous. He also shows that Bernhardi's supposed discovery of the true anthers of these plants is erroneous; and that the filamentous bodies which have been considered by that botanist as the male organs are wholly wanting in several species.

The sixth letter contains a general arrangement of the genera of Filices, scarcely differing from that of Schwartz, of which the following is a tabular abridgement.

With Annulated Without InCapsules. volucre.

Acrostichum.

Grammitis.

Meniscium. Hemionitis. Polypodium.

The succeeding letters, to the twelfth inclusive, are devoted to an accurate description of the above genera, and some of the most interesting species, intermixed with various important critical observations.

In the thirteenth and fourteenth letters are described, under the name of Pteroides, certain genera which have but little affinity either with each other, or with the established families of cryptogamous plants. Some of them have formerly been classed among the Fi lices, and others among the Musci, but it is a manifest advantage in point of arrangement to exclude them from these two natural families, and place them ad referendum in a class by themselves. Of these Pteroides, our author makes the nine following genera, Botrychium, Ophioglossum, Psilotum, Lycopo. dium, Pilularia, Marsilea, Salvinia, Isoetes, and Equisetum.

The fifteenth letter treats of the natural character, the places of growth, and geographical situation of the Musci.

"The Mosses are such cryptogamous plants, as bear on small leafy stems and branches, simple capsules, dehiscent at the top, where they are covered by a peculiar veil or calyptra. Their sexual organs, which may be distinctly seen with the help of a simple lens, consist partly in oblong bud-like gemmæ, supposed former. ly to be anthers; and partly in an aggregation of pistils, intermixed with succulent filaments. If we take the above characters in a strict sense, the Mosses will appear to be distinguished from the Hepatica merely by their one celled capsule opening at the top, while in the Hepatica the capsule has four cells opening with as many valves. In other respects, most Hepatice not only approach very near to the Mosses in their internal structure, but also in regard to their sexual organs, which are nearly similar, and not unfrequently their capsules are even furnished with a veil."

The Mosses are among the smallest of frondescent vegetables: in the largest species, which rarely exceed a foot in length, the stems are too slender to maintain themselves crect without support; and a number of species, especially in the genera Phascum and Grimmia are so minute as to be discernible only by the aid of a lens. A considerable degree of moisture is absolutely essential to the growth of all mosses; hence in tropical countries they are seen to flourish only in swampy woods or by the side of shady streams, while in colder regions the inhabit not only these, but more exposed situations. In the latter indeed, during the drought and heat of sommer they are liable to be burnt up, and are so far dried as to become quite crisp and friable, yet so simple is their organisation, that after being thus apparently dead for mary weeks, the first shower of rain will again fill all their minute vessels, and at once restore them from a state of suspended animation to full vigour. The mosses are also as patient of cold as they are of heat; on the

shores of the Siberian sea, where the soil is never thawed more than a foot in depth, on the rocks of schistus that rise out of the perpetual ice of Greenland, and on all the highest mountains, immediately beneath the boundary of the eternal snow with which they are covered, various species of mosses and lichens gain a subsistence.

The internal structure of mosses, as far as they have hitherto been examined, is extremely simple, consisting merely of cellular substance, without the smallest appearance of tracheæ or spiral vessels. are, in every species, without exception, fibrous, and their extre

The roots

ties are for the most part covered by calyptræ of a similar organization, and probably a similar use to those which are observed in the same situations on the roots of the Filices. All the mosses have leaves, and it is rather remarkable, that though some of them have midribs and others none, yet they are all destitute of footstalks, being constantly sessile, and sometimes decurrent: the form of the leaves also is extremely simple, there being no instance of a lobed or pinnated leaf in the whole tribe.

Hardly any animals are known to feed upon mosses, yet there is no doubt that they perform some very important part in the economy of nature, both from their actual abundance, and from the extraordinary care that is manifest in the various means used for their propagation. Almost all the species, and especially the creeping ones, have a remarkable tendency to throw out roots from the axilla of the branches, and in general from almost every part of the plant that happens to be in contact with the ground. In a few species even the extremities of the branches and the points of the leaves produce roots.

Besides this mode of increase, the mosses possess twe