SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 



91 



their collection and preservation. And 

 the most interesting popular books on 

 natural history in recent years have 

 exhibited a very intimate knowledge of 

 the forms considered. There is a charm 

 in familiar friendship that is far more 

 satisfactory than casual acquaintance, 

 and it is a matter of small importance 

 what the forms are — whether birds or 

 bees or some group of plants. 



One can hardly ask for a better 

 piece of book work than 'Flowers and 

 Ferns in their Haunts' by Mabel 

 Osgood Wright (Macmillan). The 

 charm lies in the beautiful photo- 

 graphic reproductions. These exhibit 

 the details of flowers or ferns in the 

 foreground against rock and in other 

 picturesque situations with a sharpness 

 that is very remarkable and in most 

 delicate contrast to the soft back- 



grounds. With this detail is a choice 

 of subjects in their surroundings that 

 shows great feeling for the appropriate 

 and artistic. The text is a running 

 account of walks and rides in woods 

 and over hill and dale in varying sea- 

 sons of the year. The descriptions, 

 chiefly of flower societies, are quite free 

 from technicalities. The point of view 

 is always imaginative and human 

 rather than scientific. The book can 

 scarcely be said to be botanical, except 

 that flowers form the subject of a 

 pleasing account of nature in her vary- 

 ing moods always treated figuratively 

 and with much personification. Two 

 human characters beside the author are 

 carried through the book, one a quaint 

 and interesting old man, the other a 

 conventionally educated young woman, 

 whose presence except as a foil seems 

 somewhat out of place in these pages. 



