was noticed at some length in our last volume (page 309,) and received
our almost unqualified commendation, which we are induced to extend to
the Part now before us. Still, we do not recollect to have pointed
out to our readers that which appears to us the great recommendatory
feature of this series of works--we mean the arrangement of the
volumes--their subdivisions and exemplifications--and these evince a
master-hand in compilation.

Every general reader must be aware that little novelty could be
expected in a brief History and Description of Timber Trees and
Fruits, and that the object of the Useful Knowledge Society was not
merely to furnish the public with new views, but to present in the
most attractive form the most entertaining facts of established
writers, and illustrate their views with the observations of
contemporary authors as well as their own personal acquaintance with
the subjects. In this manner, the Editor has taken "a general
and rapid view of fruits," and, considering the great hold their
description possesses on all readers, we are disposed to think almost
too rapid. We should have enjoyed a volume or two more than half a
volume of such reading as the present; but as we are not purchasers,
and are unacquainted with the number to which the Society propose
to extend their works, we ought not perhaps to raise this objection,
which, to say the truth, is a sort of negative commendation. Hitherto,
we have been accustomed to see compilations of pretensions similar
to the present, executed with little regard to neatness or unity,
or weight or consideration. Whole pages and long extracts have been
stripped and sliced off books, with little rule or arrangement, and
what is still worse, without any acknowledgment of the sources.
The last defect is certainly the greatest, since, in spite of
ill-arrangement, an intelligent inquirer may with much trouble, avail