Literary Notices. 61 



with races occupying an inferior position. When they came into 

 contact with an inferior race, their tendency is to destroy it rather 

 than to elevate it, and neither merchant nor missionary succeed in 

 producing those extensive changes for good which we think ought 

 to be the result of civilization acting upon comparative barbarism. 

 If the Anthropological Society can tell us how to improve existing 

 methods of teaching industry, and morality, and religion, their ser- 

 vices will be welcomed ; but indulging in throwing stones at other 

 folks contributes in no wise to this end. 



Enterprise and Adventure, being the second volume of the 

 " Temple Anecdotes." (Groombridge and Sons.) — The present 

 volume of this capital series consists of a very numerous and interest- 

 ing collection of original articles, embodying the best stories of 

 enterprise and adventurous exploration. The editor conducts his 

 readers to sojourn with Belzoni in Egypt, with Dr. Wolff amongst 

 the Affghans, with Hue and Gabet to Tartary, with Humboldt to 

 the banks of tbe Orinoco, and with Markham in Peru, and deals in 

 like manner with many other travels and travellers of importance 

 and fame. The selection and treatment of the subjects is alike 

 judicious, and thus this portion of the " Temple Anecdotes " pro- 

 vides a fund of exciting reading, in which the stimulus is of a 

 thoroughly wholesome kind. Literature of this class can be 

 honestly recommended, as calculated to rouse the young to a 

 perception of the great fact, that the real dignity of life consists in 

 its noble sentiments and in its useful work. 



Hardy Eerns : how I Collected and Cultivated them. By 

 Mona Bellairs. With a Frontispiece. (Smith, Elder, and Co.) — ■ 

 Miss Bellairs has wisely provided herself with an object in her 

 pleasure trips, and she discourses in a lively manner concerning her 

 expeditions in various parts of the three kingdoms in search of 

 ferns. Her book is very prettily got up, and will no doubt stimu- 

 late others to follow her example. Most of her advice is very good, 

 but we should not like to promise much success to any one who 

 made a fernery in a place as much exposed to sun as she 

 recommends. Most ferns fitted for out-of-door growth in this 

 climate like warmth, but they like it as they get it in their favourite 

 haunts, which are seldom exposed to the noontide blaze. 



A Handbook op British Plants. Designed especially for 

 Schools, Senior Classes, and Excursionists. By G. Lowndes Not- 

 CUTT, Author of Handbook of the Microscope, The Geography of 

 Plants, etc. (Longmans.) — Mr. Notcutt explains in his preface 

 that he has no intention of competing with the larger floras of 

 Babington, Hooker, and Bentham, but intended to produce a por- 

 table introductory volume, which could conveniently form a pocket 

 companion for the excursionist, or a handy text book for the 

 student. The book begins with a brief analysis of natural orders, 

 then we have a description of genera, and lastly a descriptive list of 

 species. In each division the student is led on by the method of 

 agreement or discrepancy now employed by all the best botanists. 

 Having ascertained the order of a plant, the list of genera is to be 



