Maintains its rank in sober, we mean useful, literature. The volume
before us contains such matter as is only to be found in large and
expensive works, with a host of annotations from the journals of recent
travellers and other volumes which bear upon the main subject. This part
of the series, describing vegetable substances used for the food of man,
is executed with considerable minuteness. A Pythagorean would gloat over
its accuracy, and a vegetable diet man would become inflated with its
success in establishing his eccentricities. The contents are the
Corn-plants, Esculent Roots, Herbs, Spices, Tea, Coffee, &c. &c. In such
a multiplicity of facts as the history of these plants must necessarily
include, some misstatements may be expected. For example, the opinion
that succory is superior to coffee, though supported by Drs. Howison and
Duncan, is not entitled to notice. All over the continent, succory, or
_chicorée_, is used to _adulterate_ coffee, notwithstanding which a few
scheming persons have attempted to introduce it in this country as an
improvement, by selling it at four times its worth. Why say "it is
sometimes considered superior to the exotic berry," and in the same
page, "it is not likely to gain much esteem, where economy is not the
consideration." We looked in vain for mention of the President of the
Horticultural Society under Celery; though we never eat a fine head of
this delicious vegetable without grateful recollection of Mr. T.A.
Knight. All preachment of the economy of the Potato is judiciously
omitted, though we fear to the displeasure of Sir John Sinclair; nor is
there more space devoted to this overpraised root than it deserves.
Truffles are not only used "like mushrooms," but for stuffing game and
poultry, especially in France: who does not remember the _perdrixaux
truffes_, of the Parisian _carte_. The chapter on coffee, cacao, tea,
and sugar, is brief but entertaining. We may observe, by the way, that
one of the obstacles to the profitable cultivation of tea in this
country is our ignorance of the modes of drying, &c. as practised in
China.
Another volume of the Entertaining Series, published since that just
noticed, contains a selection of _Criminal Trials_, amongst which are
those of Throckmorton and the Duke of Norfolk, for treason. They are, in
the main, reprints from the State Trials, which the professional editor
states to contain a large fund of instruction and _entertainment_. We
have been deceived in the latter quality, though we must admit that in
judicious hands, a volume of untiring interest might be wrought up from
the State records. As they are, their dulness and prolixity are past
endurance. As the present work proceeds in chronological order, it will
doubtless improve in its entertaining character, since no class of
literature has been more enriched by the publication of journals,
diaries, &c., than historical biography, which will thus enable the
editor to enliven his pages with characteristic traits of the principal
actors. This has been done, to some extent, in the portion before us,
and in like manner fits the volume for popular reading.
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