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] to the general theory; but this is a reason why we should take a nearer look at them, that we may learn how the spirit and tendencies of the time were reflected in vegetable physiology, and made themselves felt particularly in the theory of nutrition. De Candolle's work appeared in French in 1832 in two volumes, the first only being devoted to the subject of the nutrition of plants, and in German in 1833 with many valuable annotations by the translator Roeper, under the title, 'Pflanzen-physiologie oder Darstellung der Lebenskrafte und Lebensverrichtungen der Gewachse.' It suffers, in common with the other two books we have mentioned on the same subject, and with the earlier works of Du Hamel, Mustel, and other writers, from a too discursive mode of treatment, which has the effect of burying the points of fundamental importance under a huge mass of facts and statements from other writers. It contains much that might have been omitted as obsolete, and much empirical material of a purely chemical nature, which could not at that time be applied to the purposes of physiology. Nevertheless, it deserved the great consideration which it enjoyed for a long time, especially in Germany, for its author had undertaken to treat vegetable physiology as a separate and peculiar branch of knowledge, not ignoring at the same time its connection with and dependence on physics, chemistry, phytotomy, and biology proper, and thus to give a full and complete delineation of vegetable life ; whereas the best works that had been written since Du Hamel's time, especially on the nutrition of plants, had proceeded from chemists and physicists or from plant-growers like Knight and Cotta, who treated the subject in a one-sided manner, each from his own point of view, and made no attempt to give a connected account of all the phenomena of vegetation. For this reason De Candolle's 'Physiologie végétale' is the most important performance that appeared after Du Hamel's 'Physique des Arbres'; and if we wish to know what progress was made in vegetable physiology gener-