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amount in different samples ; but in many cases the proportion found 

 was likely to be extremely injurious to health. 



One more example, and we have done. It is not so much an adulteration 

 as an illustration of the modern art of puffing. Every newspaper contains 

 advertisements of articles particularly recommended to invalids, dyspep- 

 tics, and the public generally. These compounds, rejoicing in such 

 outlandish titles as " Ervalenta," " Revalenta Ai'abica," &c., when strip- 

 ped of the veil artfully thrown around them by impostors, are found 

 to be nothing but French, German, or Arabian lentils, with a mixture 

 of barley-flour or other substances. A packet of Revalenta Arabica 

 examined was found to contain a paper headed " Cruel deception on 

 Invalids exposed," and made up of quotations condemnatory of lentils 

 and barley-flour. It will perhaps hardly be believed that the precious 

 article thus puffed consisted chiefly of those denounced articles, lentils 

 and barley-flour ! " Extremes meet," the writer of the report slyly 

 remarks. " Lentils being somewhat cheaper than peas, are supplied 

 to many of our workhouses to be used in the preparation of soup, &c. 

 Thus they are not only consumed by paupers, but by the rich, the 

 chief difference being that the latter frequently pay two shillings and 

 ninepence per pound for them." 



We cannot refrain from adding our mite to the praise which has 

 been so generally awarded to this admirable series of papers. It is 

 evident that no time, labour, or expense has been spared to make 

 them what they profess to be, complete and authentic exposures of so 

 many indirect robberies practised by dishonest dealers and manufac- 

 turers ; and we hope that the time will come when such nefarious 

 transactions as those here described can be no longer carried on with 

 impunity. 



Note on Asplenmmfontamim. By the Rev. Andrew Bloxam, M.A. 



I HAVE been this week to inspect the herbarium formed by the late 

 Dr. Power, of Atherstone, now in the care of his daughter. Miss 

 Power. The plants are fixed down in several thick folio volumes. 

 Amongst the ferns there is one frond, in fructification, of Asplenium 

 fontanum, with the following locality attached, in Dr. Power's own 

 handwriting: — "Between Tan-y-Bwlch and Tremaddock." Miss 

 Power, who was with her father when he gathered it, informed me 

 that it was in Mr. Oakley's grounds. She was well aware of the rarity 

 of this fern, and mentioned to me that she had also found it at the 



