19 DECEMBER 1868, Page 21

The Language of Flowers. By Robert Tye% M.A. (Routledge.)— The

title does not prepossess one ; some of the silliest books that human fatuity has constructed have borne it. Mr. Tyaa's volume must not be confounded with such rubbish. He talks very pleasantly about the literary and botanical aspects of his subject, and writes a book which is well worth having.

The most splendid and, at the same time, the most really meritorious of the books specially intended for children that we have seen is Ridicula Rediviva, by „T. E. Rogers. (Macmillan.)—Twelve nursery rhymes, legends of "Miss Muffet," "The Little Man with the Little Gun," "Little Jack Horner," &c., are illustrated by drawings which seem to us of quite unusual value. The colouring is brilliant without being in the least glaring or inharmonious, the drawing full of quaint humour, and full of the little tenches which repay examination. The attempt to give any sort of idea of a work of this kind with pen and ink is almost hope- less; nor is it easy to indicate a preference. But let any one look at the Picture of old Boniface, of whom we are told that "he loved good cheer, And drank his glass of Burton ; And when the nights grew sultry hot, He slept without his shirt on." Old Boniface reclines in bed with bare Shoulders visible, suggestive of his condition ; he has pipe in one hand,

and hooped pot in the other. The thermometer is seen standing at 90 degreh; through the window the moon is visible in a cloudless sky.

Everything in the room is of the highest mediaaval art. A valet in red and blue carries away the clothes. And in quaint contrast by the bed- side is a cask with Bass's trade-mark. Or, again, if he wants a really good landscape, let him turn to the rhyme of "Little Miss Lily," with its glimmering shine on the river, the streaks of dawn or sunset in the sky, behind the fine range of architectural outline. The book is a real work of art.

Very different from this, but very good of its kind, is Little Rosy's Voyage round the World, (Seeley). The text is taken from the French

of P. J. Stahl, the illustrations are by Lorenz Frolich. These are drawn with great freedom and power, and are full of the most genuine fun, not broadly comic, indeed, as English renderings of such things are wont to be, but with delicate suggestions of humour, and withal perfectly true in attitude and expression to the child-life which they represent. The tale is of the adventures of three children, who go on a voyage down the stream which flows by their garden, and make marvellous discoveries, culminating in Robinson Crusoe's Island. Perpetual amusement is afforded by the collision of their fancies with the more practical genius of Peter, the gardener's boy, whom they take with them. And it ends with a very good little moral which, it is to be hoped, will prevent the adventure being too dangerously seductive.

Young people may be assisted in their lessons by Pictures in English History. (Routledge.)—These pictures are ninety-three in number,

and carry the young student from the Druids down to the Volunteer Review in Hyde Park. They seem to be carefully executed, with an attention to truth not always found in works of the kind. The ancient Briton, for instance, is a very real-looking savage ; the grenadier at the battle of Culloden wears the strange cap shaped like a mitre. The frontispiece, representing, we suppose, the marriage of the Prince of Wales, is not a favourable introduction to the book.