Botany of the Borders. 411 
cotemporaries and co-labourers, are replete with good taste 
and feeling, and honest admiration for departed worth. The 
work is farther enriched by an elaborate Essay on the Fossil 
Flora of the Mountain Limestone Formation of the district, 
from the pen of George Tate, Esq., F'.G.S., besides numerous 
notes, especially by Mr Hardy of Penmanshiel ; and very 
many extracts from the varied and extensive literary re- 
searches of the author. 
We have endeavoured to illustrate the scope and general 
execution of the work; it cannot be strictly termed either 
popular or scientific, but it appeals to the wants, and will 
engage the sympathy of many who will give it an attentive 
perusal. We can wander in spirit with its author through 
the old woods which rang to the thundering gallop of the 
wild cattle, and the rush of the afirighted red deer, and the 
howl of savage wolves; through forest glades where glided 
the gentle roe-buck, through morasses where wallowed the 
fierce wild boar, and by solitary lakes where the ingenious 
beaver built his dam; these woods, and their wild inhabitants, 
have all passed away, leaving scanty memorials in significant 
local names, a few gnarled trees in out-of-the-way places, 
some bony remains, some short allusions in ancient chronicles, 
and in old songs of the peasantry, which but for Scott, 
Leyden, Hogg, and others, had well-nigh passed into oblivion. 
The elder historians were content to describe court in- 
trigues, party cabals, battles, and marchings of armies, but 
in these days we demand to know something of greater 
importance, how the people fared, and what progress they 
_ made in agriculture, commerce, and literature; hence, all 
information relative to domestic and rural econony, beliefs 
and customs of the past, are most welcome. The Border 
_ Flora aspires to, and reaches a high grade of usefulness, it is 
a book of reference, speaking of old times and old customs, 
which stand in striking contrast with the present. It is thus 
that it invests the science of botany with an interest and a 
moral beauty “ undreamt of by the sensual and the proud ;” 
and we believe that no reflecting mind, imbued with a love 
for such kindred pursuits, will turn from its perusal without 
the firm conviction that 
“ All. we seem to know demands a longer learning.” 
