General Notices. 471 



The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction: containing Original 

 Essays, Historical Narratives, Biographical Memoirs, fyc. fyc, Vol. XXXIII. 

 8vo, pp. 424, with numerous engravings on wood, and a steel-plate por- 

 trait. 



In p. 180. we have given the title of this work more at length ; and in that 

 page, and in various others through our volumes, we have strongly recom- 

 mended it, on account of the excellence of its matter, and very low price. 

 The present volume is more than usually interesting to the gardener and agri- 

 culturist, on account of a number of articles exhibiting a " Popular view of 

 Natural History," by Mr. Fennell, the well-known writer on the same subject 

 in the Gardener's Gazette. These articles appear to be carefully drawn up, 

 and cannot fail to be extensively useful. 



Tea; its Effects, medicinal and moral. By G. G. Sigmond, M.D., F.S.A., &c. 

 8vo, pp. 144. London, 1839. 



Agreeable and interesting reading. The author anticipates the driving out 

 of the evil spirit in the working classes of the West, by the comparatively in- 

 tellectual beverage of the East; and nothing can be more gratifying than this 

 prospect, which is also rational, and gradually being realised. To accelerate 

 its progress, the working classes must be furnished with recreations in the 

 evenings, and on Sundays, after church service. Tea as invariably leads to 

 thinking and conversation, as gin and porter to intoxication or at all events 

 to stupefaction ; and therefore the working classes cannot reform on tea alone, 

 but must also be supplied with the harmless amusements requisite for a 

 clearer state of the mental powers. 



It appears, that both green and black tea are made from the same species, 

 Thea viridis, but that various other kinds are also used. We lately sent to 

 the city for some cheap tea, said to be genuine, and which we found to be of very 

 good quality ; and when we examined the leaves, in the presence of several 

 practical botanists, we all agreed that they were those of Camellia euryoides. 



The Stranger's Intellectual Guide to London, containing an account of the 

 literary and learned societies and institutions ; exhibitions and curiosities ; 

 museums, libraries, public and private collections, colleges, and medical in- 

 stitutions ; botanical, horticultural, and zoological gardens, &c, of the me- 

 tropolis ; with every information requisite for promoting objects of taste, or 

 literary and scientific research; by Abraham Booth, F.A.S., F.S.S., member 

 of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, &c, is in the press. 



MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



Art. I. General Notices. 



~M.fLlUM effiisum and TL'lymus geniculdtus. — I comply with a wish which you 

 express (p. 301.), by enclosing a small packet of seeds of -Milium eifusum, a grass 

 which, both as an herbage and forage plant, and also for its farinaceous seeds, 

 should be no longer neglected. I have begun to cultivate it on a large scale. Al- 

 though a syl vatic plant naturally, it grows freely in exposed situations j and in 

 woodlands would be valuable in producing food for pheasants, along with the 

 .E'lymus geniculates. When these two plants shall become general favourites, 

 and their culture be extended in woodlands, pheasants will find plenty of 

 food, and even cover, which may prevent their depredations in corn fields, too 

 often the fertile source of heart-burnings between landlord and tenant. This 

 packet of seeds will, I trust, be acceptable to your esteemed correspondent, 

 W. P. T. — Archibald Gome. Annat Gardens, May 9. 1839. 



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