_The Botany of the Eastern Borders, with the Popular Names and Uses of the
Plants, and of the Customs and Beliefs which have been associated with
them_, by George Johnson, M.D. This, the first volume of _The Natural
History of the Eastern Borders_, is a book calculated to please a very
large body of readers. The botanist will like it for the able manner in
which the various plants indigenous to the district are described. The
lover of Old World associations will be delighted with the industry with
which Dr. Johnson has collected, and the care with which he has recorded
their popular names, and preserved the various bits of folk lore associated
with those popular names, or their supposed medicinal virtues. The
antiquary will be gratified by the bits of archaeological gossip, and the
biographical sketches so pleasantly introduced; and the general reader with
the kindly spirit with which Dr. Johnson will enlist him in his company--
" . . . Unconstrain'd to rove along
The bushy brakes and glens among."
Marry, it were a pleasant thing to join the _Berwickshire Natural History
Club_ in one of their rambles through the Eastern Borders.
Mr. Bohn has just added to his _Antiquarian Library_ a volume which will be
received with great satisfaction by all who take an interest in the
antiquity of Egypt. It is a translation by the Misses Horner of Dr.
Lepsius' _Letters from Egypt, Ethiopia, and the Peninsula of Sinai, with
Extracts from his Chronology of the Egyptians, with reference to the Exodus
of the Israelites, revised by the Author_. Dr. Lepsius, it may be
mentioned, was at the head of the scientific expedition appointed by the
King of Prussia to investigate the remains of ancient Egyptian and
Ethiopian civilisation, still in preservation in the Nile valley and the
adjacent countries; and in this cheap volume we have that accomplished
traveller's own account of what that expedition was able to accomplish.
We are at length enabled to answer the Query which was addressed to us some
time since on the subject of the continuation of Mr. MacCabe's _Catholic
History of England_. The third volume is now at press, and will be issued
in the course of the next publishing season.
BOOKS RECEIVED.--_A Letter to a Convocation-Man concerning the Rights,
Powers, and Privileges of that Body, first published in 1697. Edited, with
an Introduction and Notes_, by the Rev. W. Fraser, B.C.L. This reprint of a
very rare tract will no doubt be prized by the numerous advocates for the
re-assembling of Convocation, who must feel indebted to Mr. Fraser for the
care and learning with which he has executed his editorial task.--_A
Collection of Curious, Interesting, and Facetious Epitaphs, Monumental
Inscriptions, &c._, by Joseph Simpson. We think the editor would have some
difficulty in authenticating many of the epitaphs in his collection, which
seems to have been formed upon no settled principle.--_The Physiology of
Temperance and Total Abstinence, being an Examination of the Effects of the
Excessive, Moderate, and Occasional Use of Alcoholic Liquors on the Healthy
Human System_, by Dr. Carpenter: a shilling pamphlet, temperately written
and closely argued, and well deserving the attention of all, even of the
most temperate.
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