NOVEMBER 211 



of some hills near Narbonne, in the year 1552, when 

 travelling with his friend, the celebrated Bondeletius, 

 from Carcassonne to Montpellier. It is said to grow in 

 other parts of the South of France, as well as in Spain, 

 chiefly on open hills near the coast. It bears our 

 climate in the open border, flowering, though very rarely, 

 in August. We receive it from the Botanic Garden of 

 Liverpool by favour of Mr. John Shepherd.' 



Such a passage, one of many, seems to stretch a 

 hand across the centuries, and explains the kind of 

 charm these old books have for those who like them. 

 The plates are carefully drawn and well coloured. This 

 book contains many plants from New Holland which 

 must then have been rare ; some are noted as grown in 

 gardens at Paddington, some as never having flowered 

 in Europe at all. It is certainly an interesting book. 



1810. ' The Gardener's Kalendar,' by Walter Nicol. 

 This is the earliest of my gardening directories, and it 

 is not illustrated. It is an excellent little book, but one 

 learns nothing from it except that nearly all we know 

 now was known then. 



1810. ' A Small Family Herbal/ by E. J. Thornton, 

 M.D., interesting as it claims to be illustrated by Thomas 

 Bewick. The little woodcuts of plants and flowers are 

 charming. The arrangement of the book is sensible and 

 clear, and has, at the end of the medical part, some 

 receipts for currant wine, elder wine, &c. 



1812. 'A Family Herbal,' by Sir John Hill, M.D, 

 The illustrations are coarse, and not well drawn, though 

 hand-painted. It is a typical book of the day, when there 

 were so many of the same kind. 



1812. ' The New Botanic Garden. Illustrated with 

 133 plants, engraved by Sansom from the original 

 pictures, and coloured with the greatest exactness from 

 drawings by Sydenham Edwards.' There is considerable 



