Nothing has hitherto been made public so well calculated to impress the mind with admiration of the Himalayan vegetation as a thin folio volume* by Dr. Hooker which has just appeared. During his residence in India the author became acquainted with the late Mr. Cathcart, a most zealous amateur, who had formed at a great cost by means of native artists, and a corps of Lepcha collectors in his pay, a very extensive series of drawings of the vegetation that surrounded him. His residence is described as a singularly beautiful spot about 1000 feet below Darjeeling and 6000 feet above the sea, occupying a mountain spur overhanging the steep forest-clad gorge of the great Runjeet river, 5000 feet below, and descending in steep jungly slopes on either hand. "Through these forests he had caused the natives to cut paths, directing all their operations with all the taste and judgment of an experienced and skilful landscape gardener. These openings led through the tangled jungle and wound amongst tail trunks of giant timber trees, which were clothed with climbing Palms, wild Vines, Pottos, Hodgsonia, and Ipomaea, and laden with masses of Orchids and Ferns, suddenly emerging on eminences commanding views of 200 miles of snowy mountains, rising range behind range in dazzling beauty, and again descending by zigzags to cascades fringed with Ferns and Mosses, and leading thence along the margins of rippling streams, overshadowed by Tree Ferns, Bamboos, and wild Plantains."Surely this must be a scene in Fairy land! In such retreats were collected the materials out of which has been made the selection of drawings now laid before the public ; aided, however, by Dr. Hooker's own sketches and reduced to an artistic form by the inimitable pencil of Mr. Fitch. Of the merit of the plates it is difficult indeed to speak too highly.

Undoubtedly they are the finest that have ever yet been prepared by any English artist ; nor are they in any degree inferior to the drawings of the celebrated Austrian Bauer.

The high price of the work unfortunately places it far beyond the reach of many purchasers; We shall therefore be doing our readers a real service by bringing before them a short account of such of the plants as appear to possess the greatest horticultural interest. Pawing by the tropical Hodgsonia heteroclita, a prodigious Cucurbit, with slender climbing stems 100 feet long, and gigantic flowers, every petal of which terminates in half a dozen corkscrews exceeding the span of any man's fingers, we arrive at the following account of a hardy tree of such magnificent beauty that even the Victoria Lily is eclipsed in its presence.

• "Illustrations of Himalayan Plants," chiefly selected from drawings made for the late J. F. Cathcart, Esq., of the Bengal &y11 Service, The descriptions and analysis by J. D. Hooker, M. D., F.R.S. The plates executed by W.H. Fitch. Folio. Beeve. 51.3s.