nal edition in thirteen parts, with the seventeen engravings, and
was so lettered, no doubt, by its former owner to shelter it from
indiscreet curiosity!

The practice of giving books of poetry, novels, etc., what may be
described as floricultural titles, has landed cataloguers into an
astonishing number and variety of errors, some of which have been
pointed out by Mr. B. Daydon Jackson in the _Bibliographer_. The chief
sinners have been foreign bibliographers, who, not being able to examine
the books which they catalogue, depend entirely upon the titles. The
same error occurs frequently here in this country. An English trade
journal included Dr. Garnett's selection from Coventry Patmore's poems,
'Florilegium Amantis,' under 'Botany, Farming, and Gardening.' Two of
Mayne Reid's novels, 'The Forest Exiles' and 'The Plant-Hunters,' have
been included among scientific books, but in these cases the errors seem
to have arisen from the misleadingly translated titles, the former in
Italian ('Gli esuli nella foresta; cognizioni di scienza fiscia e
naturale'), and the latter in French, 'Le Chasseur de Plantes.' The
learned Pritzel included among botanical treatises 'The Lotus, or Faery
Flower of the Poets.' In the earlier part of the century a story was in
circulation relative to an erudite collector who was accustomed to boast
of his discoveries in Venetian history from the perusal of a rare
quarto, 'De Re Venatica.' A brother bibliographer one day lowered his
pretensions by gravely informing him that the historical discoveries to
which he laid claim had been anticipated by Mr. Beckford, who, towards
the close of the last century, published them to the world under the
analogous title of 'Thoughts on Hunting.'

There is a good deal of amusement to be got sometimes out of even such
an unpromising source as an auctioneer's catalogue, especially when it
includes books. The list of a miscellaneous lot of things lately sold at
a South London depository comes in this category. One of the items, for
example, is entered as 'Dickin's works bound in half,' but who Mr.
'Dickin' is, or was, or what the 'half' indicates, the reader is left to
find out. 'Goldsmith lover' also seems a trifle confusing, until the lot
is hunted up and the discovery made that Goldsmith's 'Works' is
intended. Lytton's 'King John' suggests a work hitherto unknown to
readers of the author of 'My Novel,' until examination proves it to be
'King Arthur,' and 'McCauley