BARR’S Seed Guide, containing many useful notes on culture, which will be found of great value to Gardeners, Amateurs and Exhibitors, free on application.

BARR’S Catalogue of Hardy Perennials and Alpines, Ready in February, Free.

BARR’S Catalogue of Bulbs and Tubers for Spring Planting, Ready in February, Free.

BARR’S List of Autumn-flowering Bulbs, Ready 1st July, Free.

BARR’S Catalogue of Beautiful Daffodils, Ready in August, Free.

BARR’S Catalogue of Bulbs for Garden and Greenhouse, Ready 1st September, Free.

There is too often a scarcely veiled reproach in that exclamation: “How stout you are getting!” At any rate, the corpulent one is generally sensitive on that point, and perhaps feels a reproach where none is intended. Certain it is that to lose the svelte symmetry of youth, to broaden out, to “swell wisibly,” as Sam Weller has it, and finally to become “fat and scant of breath,” is a process at once humiliating and distressing, especially to those who possess that keen appreciation of personal appearance which is a part of what is termed good breeding. There is now, however, no excuse for those who have resigned themselves to carry to the grave the rotund proportions of a Falstaff. The perusal of a little book entitled “Corpulency and the Cure,” by F. Cecil Russell, has afforded us not a little interest and instruction on a subject that has hitherto received but superficial attention from the medical profession. Mr. Russell has made the cure of obesity his life’s study, and judging from the record of his achievements—over a thousand grateful letters from his patients are printed in the book—he has been singularly successful. The author’s treatment is not by “wasting.” There is no “sweating”; there are no stringent restrictions as to eating and drinking; no drastic conditions of any kind. The medicine prescribed is simple and pleasant, purely vegetable, and perfectly harmless.

Its action is two-fold; it reduces the abundant fatty tissue at a very rapid rate—in some cases to the extent of over 1lb. or 2lbs. in twenty-four hours—usually from 3lbs. to 4lbs. in a week (sometimes considerably more), and at the same time it acts as a refreshing and invigorating tonic, promoting a healthy appetite, and dispelling the feeling of depression and extreme malaise experienced by the majority of