We may glance over the botany of Italy, to whose boundaries• we have thus been insensibly led, as the eye of the traveller takes a bird's-eye view of its outstretched plains from the summits of' the Alps. We may pass from Turin .to Naples without meeting -with. any school of distinction. The northern states are not without their professors and patrons of bo tany, nor are their nobles destitute of taste, in vari ous branches of natural knowledge. The names of a Castiglione of Milan, a Duraizo and Dinegro of Ge noa, and a kiwi of Pisa, deserve to be mentioned with honour, for their knowledge and their teal. The unfor tanateCyrillo, and his friend Pacifico, at Naples, were practical botanists. -There is also arising school; of great promise, at Palermo. But since the time of Scopoli, Italy has contributed little. to our stock of information ; nor are the latter publications of this _eminent man, while he resided at Pavia, commensu rate in importance or merit with those •earlier ones, the Flora, sad Entoraologia; Carniolica, which have ' immortalized his name. Scopoli, who at first adopt ed a system of his own, had the sense and liberality, in his second edition, to resign it, in &your of what his maturer experience taught him to prefer, the sex mai system of Linnaeus. . • Spain. and Portugal claim-our -attention; the for seer. for beipg the • channel through which the gar dens of Europe have- been, for some years past en riched with many new Mexican and Peruvian plants; and likewise as the theatre; of the publication of some important books, relative to the botany of those countries. speaking of American botany, we have mentioned•the FloAaPerav:iana, whose authors, Refit and Pavan, rank deservedly high for their industry and knowledge. The late Cavanilles, resident at Madrid, has also communicated to the learned world much. inforMation, from the same sourde. Spain seems anxious to redeem her reputation, which 'sue. fered so much from the neglect, or rather persecto tiote'ef.thentaly excellent but unfintunate Dornhey; who,. like benefactors of mankind, eas allowed to.rnake all his exertions in vain, and fleetly perishedunlcaown„ in the diabolical hands of English slaveeleiders aitIMontsermt. Portugal is moat die anguished at home by the labours of a learned be' aedictine, Dr 'Felix Avellar Brotero, autliot• of a Fiera Latitanioa, diapered they. the Litkiiieen 'me thod, reduciedatairely to principles of number ; and abroad by the valuable work 'of Father Leureiro, entitled MOPS COthittaltikelnifi in which the plants of Cochinchina, and of the neighbourhood of Can ton, are classed and defined in the Linntean manner, with- valuable descriptions and remarks. It is un doubtedly a disgrace to the possessors of such a country as Brasil, that they have not derived from thence more benefit to the world, or to themselves, from its natural productions. But they are satisfied with what the bowels of the earth afford, and they neglect its more accessible, though perhaps not less valuable, treasures: The jealousy, and innumerable restrictions of their government, render what they possess as useless to all the world as to themselves. A of the first rank in natural science, as well as in. every thing which his capacious mind em braced, has arisen in Portugal, and has been domes ticated in the schools of Paris and London, the ami able and learned Correa de Serra, now a traveller in the United States of America. What little impulse has been given to literature in Portugal, and parti cularly the foundation of a Royal Academy of Sciences, is owing to him ; and though his name hag chiefly appeared in the ranks of botanical science in an incidental manner, no one possesses more en larged and accurate views,'or more profound know. ledge, of the subject.
The Limnean system of classification, with all its" concomitant advantages of nomenclature, luminous tedhnical definition, and richness oflefermation was planted, like a fresh and vigorous acyon, in the fa• voorable soil of England, already fertilized with ac• curinilations of practical knowledge, about the middle of the IUst century. If we may pursue the metaphor, the ground was entirely cleared for its reception ; for all previous systems had been of confined and local use ; the alphabetical index having become the resource of even the most learned ; and the pupils of Ray, being held to his method of classification, rather by their gratitude fbr his practical instruc tion, than•any other consideration. Accordingly we have, in our own early progress, before they were all, as at present, swept off the stage, found them rather contending for his nomenclature, imperfect as it was, because they were habituated to it, than for his system, of which, it was evident, they had made little use. Hence the first attempt in England, to reduce our plants to Lineman order, made by Hill, was chiefly a transposition of Ray 'a Sysopsts into the Linniean classes, the original nomenclature being retained, while the specific names of the Species Plantorturs were rejected.
Hill's imperfect performance was superseded, by the more classical Flora ibegiica of Hudson, com posed under the auspices and advice of the learned and ingenious Stillingfleet, in which the botany of England assumed a most scientific aspect, and with which all the knowledge of Ray was incorporated. At the same time, the principles of theoretical bota ny, and the philosophical writings of the learned Swede, were studied with no ordinary powers of discrimination and judgment, in a small circle of experienced observers at Norwich. A love of flow ers, and a great degree of skill in their cultivation, had been long ago imported into that ancient com mercial city, with its worsted manufacture, from Flanders ; and out of this taste, something like the study of systematic botany had sprung. These pur. suits were mostly confined to the humblest of the community, particularly among the then very rune roes bodies ofjourneymen weavers, dyers, &c. To wards the middle of the eighteenth century, several of the opulent merchants seem to have acquired, by their intimate connection with Holland, not only the above-mentioned taste for horticulture, but likewise an ambition to be distinguished by their museum of natural curiosities. The former sometimes extended itself; from the flowery parterre, and the well-at. ranged rows of tulips, hyacinths, carnations, and au Honks, into no less formal labyrinths, or perhaps a double pattern of angular or spiral walks, between clipped bodges, exactly alike on each aide of a broad gravel walk. Such was the most sublime effort of the art within the compass of our recollection. " Grove" could by no means be said to " nod at grove," for the perpendicular and structure was incapable of nodding ; but that " each alley should have a brother" was an indispensable part of the design. Greenhouses of exotic pleats, except oranges and myrtles, were at this time acanely known; and the writer well recollects hav ing seen, with wonder and admiration, above forty years ago, one of the first African Geraniums that ever bloomed in Norwich. If, however, the progress of natural science was slow in this angle 01 the kingdom, the wealthy manufacturers, become their .Own merchants, found it necessary to acquit* a knowledge of various foreign languages, in artier to carry on their wide-extended commerce- in leg French, Italian, Spanish, Puteh, and -Permeei they Anavuidably acquired many new Their sons were sent to the continent, and it were hard, indeed, if many of them did not bring hoMe much that was worth learning. The society 4414 place, aided by some concomitant circumstances; and the adventitious acquisition of two or three men of sin gular talents and accomplishments, became improved. A happy mixture of literature and taste, for many years distinguished this city, above its rivals in opu lence and commercial prosperity. Such Norwich has been in our memory, and of its iplendour be one by, a taste for mental cultivation, originating an many of the before-mentioned causes; soli re mains, and is fostered by the novel pursuits of che mistry and natural history, on which some arts, of rat importance in the manufactory of the place, depend for improvement. We trust the reader will pardon this digression from the subject mere blame diately before us, to which we shall now return.