After the example of Denmark, Sweden, &c. Rus sia has been desirous of promoting, throughout its vast dependencies, an attention to natural knowledge. Nor was any country ever more fortunate in the pos session of an active and intelligent naturalist. The celebrated Pallas successfully devoted a life to, these pursuits, and to the communication of his dis coveries and observations. He prompted the Em press Catharine to offer an unlimited sum for the museum, library, and manuscripts of Linnaeus ; but, fortunately for their present possessor, the offer was made too late. A Flora Rossica, on the most mag nificent scale, was undertaken by Pallas, his Imperial mistress proposjpg to defray the cost of the whole undertaking, not merely for sale, but for gratuitous presentation, on the most princely scale, to all who had any taste or ability to make use of the book. This well-intended,munificence was the cause of the ruin of the project. Half of a first volume was be stowed as the Empress intended. But the second part, instead of following the destination of the first, got into the hands of interested people, who defeat ed the liberal designs of their sovereign, misapplied her money, and by the disgust and disappointment which ensued, prevented the continuance of the work. Those who wished to complete their sets, or to ob tain the book at all, were obliged to become clandes tine purchasers, buying, as a favour, what they ought to have received awe free gift ; and were moreover, like the writer of this, often obliged to put up with imperfect copies. In like manner the intentions of the great Mr Howard, respecting his book on pri sons, were rendered ineffectual, by the disgraceful avarice of certain London booksellers, who imme diately bought up, and sold at a greatly advanced price, the whole edition, which its benevolent author bad destined to be accessible to every body at an unusually cheap rate. These examples, amongst others, show that it is the most difficult thing in the world to employ patronage, as well as gratuitous cha rity of any kind, to real advantage, except under the guidance of the most rigorous discretion. " All that men of power can do for men of genius," says Gray, if we recollect aright, " is to leave them at liberty, or they become like birds in a cage," whose song is no longer that of nature and enjoyment. The great and the affluent may foster and encou rage science and literature, by their countenance, their attention, and a free, not overwhelming, libe rality. But when princes become publishers of books, or directors of academies, they generally do more harm than good. They descend from their station, and lose sight perhaps of their higher and peculiar duties, which consist in promoting the gene ral prosperity, peace, and liberty of their subjects, under the benign influence of which, every art, science, or pursuit, that can be beneficial to • man kind, is sure to flourish without .much gratuitous as sistance.
Several of the immediate scholars of the illustri ous Swedish naturalist were planted in different parts of Germany. Murray, to. whom he entrusted the publication of that compendious volume, entitled, Systema Vegetabilium, and who printed two sive editions of the work, was seated as Professor at Gottingen. Giseke was established at Hamburgh, and, after the death of Linnaeus, gave to the world such an edition as he was able to compile, from•his own notes and those of Fabricius, of the lectures of their late preceptor, on the Natural Orders of Plants. His ideas on this subject Linnaeus himself alwayscon sidered as too imperfect to be published, except in the form of a sketch or index, at the end of his Genera Planlarum. The venerable patriarch, Professor Jac quin, still survives at Vienna, where he, and his wor thy son, have enriched botany with a number of splendid and useful works. They have given to the
public several labours of the excellent practical bo tanist Wulfen, and others, which might, but for their encouragement, have been lost. The highly valua ble publication of Host on grasses, is conducted on the plan of Jacquin's works. His Synopsis of Aus trian plants is an excellent Flora, disposed according to the Sexual System, as is the more ample Testa men Flora Germanica of the celebrated Dr Roth, one of the best practical European botanists, and more deeply versed than most cryptogamic lore. The best Linmean Flora, as far as it goes, that the world has yet seen, we speak it without any ex• oeption, is the Flora Germanic of Professor Schra. der of Gottingen, the first volume of which, cons. prising the first three classes of the sexual system, was published in 1806. The correct distinctions, well-digested synonyms, and complete descriptions of this work, are altogether unrivalled. If the whole 'should be equally well executed, for which the long est life would be scarcely sufficient, it must ever be the Standard book of European botany. Its descrip tions of grasses are worthy to accompany the exqui site engravings of the same tribe from the hand of Leers, published at Herborn in 1776, which excel every other botanical representation that we have ex amined. They will bear, and indeed they require, the application of a magnifying-glass, like the plants themselves. The purchaser of this little volume must however beware of the second edition, whose plates are good for little or nothing. The name of Schra der has long been distinguished in Cryptogamic Bo tany. In this pursuit, the industrious and accurate botanists of Germany, shut out from extensive op portunities of studying exotic plants, have had full scope for their zeal and abilities. In this field the Leipsic school has distinguished itself. Here the great Schreber first began his career with some of the most perfect cryptogamic works, especially on the minute genus Phascuni. Here the same author published his excellent Flora Lipsiensis, his labori ous practical work on Grasses, and finally his ine• proved edition of the Genera Plantarum of his friend Linnaeus. But, above all, Leipeicis famous for be ing the residence of Hedwig, whose discoveries, re lative to the fructification and generic characters of Mosses, form an era in botanic science. Under the bands of such an observer, that elegant tribe displays itself with a degree of beauty, variety and singularity, which vies with the most admired herbs and flowers, and confirms the Littman doctrine of impregnation, which the more obvious organs of the latter had originally taught. Nor must we, in speaking of cryptogamic plants, neglect here to record the names of Weis, Weber, Mohr, Schmidel, Esper, and espe cially Hoffmann ; the plates of the latter, illustrating the Lichen tribe, are models of beauty and correct ness. His Flora Germanica is a most convenient and compendious manual, after the Linmean system. Fungi have been studied in Germany with peculiar care and minuteness. The leading systematic au thor in this obscure tribe, Persoon, was indeed born, of Dutch parents, at the Cape of Good Hope; but he studied and published at Gottingen. Two writ ers, of the name of Albertini and Schweiniz, have published the most minute and accurate exemplifi cation of this natural order, in an octavo volume, at Leipsic, in the year 1805, comprising the Fungi of the district of Niski in Upper Lusatia. If their gures are less exquisitely finished than Persoon's, or less elaborately detailed than Schrader's, their de scriptions make ample amends.