The appearance of this book is singularly elegant, its tinted paper soft and creamy, its type clear and beautiful, its quotations evince poetic culture, and its illustrations are exquisitely graceful.  It is a real pleasure to turn over its attractive leaves with the names of loved old flower-friends greeting us on every page, and new claimants with new hopes and types of beauty constantly starting up before us.  What with Waltonian cases, hanging baskets, Wardian cases, &c., our ladies may adorn their parlors with artistic taste with these fragrant, fragile, rainbow-hued children of Nature.

  ’Bright gems of earth, in which perchance we see
  “What Eden was, what Paradise may be.’

’From the contemplation of nature’s beauty there is but the uplifting of the eye to the footstool of the Creator.’

HOSPITAL TRANSPORTS.  A Memoir of the Embarkation of the Sick and Wounded from the Peninsula of Virginia in the Summer of 1862.  Compiled and published at the request of the Sanitary Commission.  Boston:  Ticknor & Fields.  For sale by D. Appleton & Co., New York.

A book which should be in the hands of all who love their country.  The Sanitary Commission deserve the undying gratitude of the nation.  Their organization is one of pure benevolence; the men and women working effectively through its beneficent channel have given evidence of some of the noblest and divinest attributes of the human soul.  It is difficult to form any idea of the magnitude and importance of the work the commission has achieved.  ’Never till every soldier whose last moments it has soothed, till every soldier whose flickering life it has gently steadied into continuance, whose waning reason it has softly lulled into quiet, whose chilled blood it has warmed into healthful play, whose failing frame it has nourished into strength, whose fainting heart it has comforted with sympathy,—­never, until every full soul has poured out its story of gratitude and thanksgiving, will the record be complete; but long before that time, ever since the moment that its helping hand was first held forth, comes the Blessed Voice:  ’Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.’’

’The blessings of thousands who were ready to perish, and tens of thousands who love their country and their kind, rest upon those who originated, and those who sustain this noble work.’

This book is full of vivid interest, of true incident, of graphic sketches, of loyalty, patriotism, and self-abnegation, whether of men or of noble women, and recommends itself to all who love and would fain succor the human race.

AUSTIN ELLIOT.  BY HENRY KINGSLEY, Author of Ravenshoe, etc.  Boston:  Ticknor & Fields.  For sale by D. Appleton & Co.  New York.

A graphic novel of considerable ability, and more than usual interest.  The tone is highly moral throughout.  The lessons on duelling are excellent.  Would that our young men would lay them to heart!  The characters are, many of them, well drawn and sustained—­we confess to a sincere affection for the Highlander, Gil Macdonald, and the Scotch sheep-dog, Robin.  Many of the scenes in which they appear are full of simple and natural pathos.