LITERARY NOTICES. 



127 



in Europe. The articles reported upon are 

 cotton textiles, cotton yarns, woolen and 

 worsted textiles, woolen and worsted yarns, 

 linen textiles, silk textiles, window glass, 

 green-glass bottles, flint-glass bottles, and 

 lamp chimneys. 



The Shrubs of Northeastern America. 

 By Charles S. Newhall. New York: 

 G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 249. Price. 



$2.50. 



The author has already published The 

 Trees of Northeastern America and The 

 Leaf-collector's Handbook, and is prepar- 

 ing The Vines of Northeastern America the 

 four constituting a series of work which 

 the botanist, the admirer of native plants, 

 and the possessor of a home to be adorned, 

 can not fail to find useful and acceptable 

 in every way. The purpose is to furnish 

 means by which one strolling in the woods 

 can easily recognize the woody plants he 

 meets, and information concerning their 

 adaptability to planting in the house- 

 grounds; or to introduce the many who 

 have no technical botanical knowledge to 

 the author's "friends, the shrubs." The 

 shrubs described are those which are found 

 native in Canada and the United States east 

 of the Mississippi River and north of the 

 latitude of southern Pennsylvania ; and with 

 them, the more important of the introduced 

 and naturalized species. Besides the bo- 

 tanical descriptions which are clear, easy, 

 and satisfactory and one hundred and 

 sixteen illustrative plates, there are given a 

 list of families and of genera, directions and 

 a key to the signs used, guides to the shrubs 

 by flower, by leaf, and by fruit, an expla- 

 nation of terms, a glossary, a list of shrubs 

 worthy of cultivation, and an index to the 

 shrubs. 



Homes in City and Country. By Russell 

 Sturgis, John W. Root, Bruce Prick, 

 Donald G. Mitchell, Samuel Parson.s, 

 Jr., and W. A. Linn. New York : 

 Charles Scribner's Sons. With One 

 Hundred Illustrations. Pp. 214. Price, 



The papers in this volume relating to 

 city homes are partly historical, and treat of 

 the evolution of the plans from the first at- 

 tempts to adapt room space to narrow lots, 

 to the modern styles. The first one, by Mr. 

 Sturgis, on the City Homes in the East and 



South, relates to houses in New York, Bos- 

 ton, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Richmond, Va., 

 etc. The views and plans show how the 

 New York house, and still more the Boston 

 house, were cramped by the small size of the 

 lot and the high price of land; while the 

 houses in the more southern cities, Philadel- 

 phia, Baltimore, and Richmond, with greater 

 freedom of space, were expanded, and much 

 more convenient and comfortable; and an 

 almost endless variety prevails in the cities 

 farther south. Mr. John W. Root begins 

 his account of the city house in the West 

 by showing how the device of the "balloon 

 frame " has assisted in the spread of settle- 

 ment and civilization ; for almost any one 

 can put up that kind of a house, with the 

 simplest implements, in a short time and at 

 comparatively little cost ; and it resists the 

 high winds very well too. The younger 

 Western cities are more than half built of 

 such houses ; and they are beneficial to the 

 city's future and to its architecture, for be- 

 cause of them " every old Western city must 

 be almost entirely rebuilt, and this under 

 modern and enlightened auspices, as if it 

 had been devastated by a great fire or cy- 

 clone. ... It certainly presents possibili- 

 ties to the architects of the West such as 

 have never been given to any other groups 

 of men." On the other hand, the balloon- 

 framed house can never become a landmark, 

 or a link in the architectural development 

 of the country. Western city houses are 

 marked by the absence of blocks like those 

 of the Eastern cities, by the tendency toward 

 greater enlargement and importance of the 

 living and dining rooms at the expense of 

 the parlor and living rooms, and by their 

 openness. The outlook for Western city 

 houses seems to be promising. The archi- 

 tecture is free from the bondage of archi- 

 tectural tradition, and among the various 

 rival cities dominant fads are likely to be- 

 come less common, and problems will be 

 more generally determined by the nature of 

 the case. In the subject of The Suburban 

 Home, Mr. Bruce Price has a theme on 

 which, regarding the colonial houses, the old 

 country houses, the transitory styles of the 

 later past, the present styles, and their 

 tendencies, he might write well for an al- 

 most indefinite length. He satisfies himself 

 with considering chiefly the more meritori- 



