58 REVIEWS. [February, 



belief of the threadbare story of Raleigh's newly appointed ser- 

 vant's throwing the contents of the beer-jack in his master's face, 

 to quench, as was feared^ the internal combustion. If not To- 

 bacco^ certainly some herbs were smoked in England centuries 

 before the epoch of America's discovery, and longer still ere 

 the weed^s introduction into England. Pipes for smoking some- 

 thing have been discovered with Roman remains. And there 

 are, in the cabinets of the curious, relics of smoking-apparatus 

 probably used by the ancient Britons. In Eastern lands the 

 custom is of unknown antiquity ; so it is in the West. The 

 aborigines of America smoked before they were visited by Co- 

 lumbus and the early discoverers of the western hemisphere. 

 England has seen many changes since the British Solomon, who 

 then swayed her destinies, published his famoiis ' Counterblast 

 against Tobacco.' There is a current story of this king, illus- 

 trative of his dislike to other things not so objectionable jt?er se 

 as Tobacco. He said that if he was to invite his Satanic Ma- 

 jesty to dinner, that he would regale him with pork — which most 

 Christians call good eating — for the first course, a poll of ling 

 and mustard for the second, and to finish with a pipe of Tobacco 

 for digestion. A famous poet of that age, Sylvester, wrote a 

 poem on the subject, which he entitles 'Tobacco battered and 

 the Pipes shattered (about their ears who do idly idolize so base 

 and barbarous a weed, or at least-wise overlove so loathsome a 

 vanity) by a volley of Holy Shot from Mount Helicon.' His 

 verses shall not be quoted here ; but it may be believed that 

 even in our liberal and independent times, royal and even noble 

 authors would not lack imitators. 



Index Filicum. Part V. By Thomas Moore, Author of the 

 ' Handbook of British Ferns/ the ' Ferns of Great Britain and 

 Ireland, Nature-printed,' etc., Curator of the Chelsea Botanic 

 Garden. 



The author informs his readers that the publication of this 

 part has been delayed " chiefly by the author's illness " (from 

 ■which, we are happy to inform our readers, he is now completely 

 recovered), and that the sixth part is now in hand, and it is 

 hoped will soon follow. 



