NATIONAL MILITARY SERIES.  Part First. 
By Captain W.W.  Van Ness.  New York: 
Carleton, 413 Broadway.

A neat little work on military tactics, conforming to the army regulations adopted and approved by the War Department of the United States.  It is thoroughly practical, ’being arranged on the plainest possible principle of question and answer,’ and being within the reach of the dullest capacity, and thoroughly comprehensive of all required of the soldier, will probably become, as its author trusts, ’a standard military work.’

FORT LAFAYETTE; OR, LOVE AND SECESSION. 
By Benjamin Wood.  New York: 
Carleton, 413 Broadway. 1862.

Even while a tree is being blown down by the hurricane, small fungi or other minute vegetation spring up in its rifts; every social shock of the day is promptly scened and ‘tagged’ at the minor theatres; and shall this war escape its novels?  Mr. WOOD votes in the negative, and supplies us with a somewhat sensational yet not badly manufactured article, which, like the melo-dramas referred to, will be received with delight by a certain line of patrons, and, we presume, be also relished.  It is a first-rate specimen of a second-rate romance.

HEROES AND MARTYRS:  Notable Men of the Time.  With Portraits on Steel.  New York:  G.P.  Putnam, 532 Broadway.  C.T.  Evans, General Agent. 1862.  Price 25 cents.

The first number of a large quarto, exquisitely printed, biographical series of sketches of the military and naval heroes, statesmen, and orators, distinguished in the American crisis of 1861-62, and edited by FRANK MOORE.  The portraits of Commodore S.F.  DUPONT and Major THEODORE WINTHROP, in this first number, are excellent; while the literary portion, devoted to WINFIELD SCOTT, deserves praise.  The cheapness of the publication is truly remarkable.

TRANSACTIONS of THE MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, FOR THE YEAR 1861.  Boston:  Henry W. Dutton & Son, Printers, Transcript Building. 1862.

A work testifying to the great extent and efficacy of the labors of the society, and one which, among a mass of merely business detail, contains much interesting information.  An article on the first discovery of the heather in America, by EDWARD S. RAND, is well worth reading.  Can any of our wise men re-discover the lost Pictish art of making good beer from that plant?

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BOOKS RECEIVED.

DINAH.  New York:  Charles Scribner, 124 Grand Street.  Boston:  Brown &
Taggard. 1861.

THE REBELLION RECORD.  A Diary of American Events, with Documents, Narratives, Illustrative Incidents, and Poetry.  Edited by Frank Moore.  New York:  G.P.  Putnam.

THE BROKEN ENGAGEMENT; OR, SPEAKING THE TRUTH FOR A DAY.  By Mrs. Emma
D.E.N.  Southworth.  Philadelphia:  T.B.  Peterson.  Price 25 cents. 1861.

THE AMERICAN CRISIS:  Its Cause, Significance, and Solution.  By Americus. 
Chicago, Illinois:  Joshua R. Walsh, 1861.