1897] SOME NEW BOOKS 345 



The following paragraph may be quoted as exemplifying at once 

 Mr Martin's scientific attainments and his literary style : — 



" To be thoroughly acquainted with the beautiful grasses of Great 

 Britain is to possess a knowledge of which I am ambitious. As I 

 was collecting grasses on my walk, I pulled some concerning which 

 I was at a loss to know whether they were of identical species, or 

 whether they were distinct. Almost as the thought passed through 

 my mind, my eyes lighted upon a grass of which the lower half of the 

 blossom was fully expanded. This showed the features of one speci- 

 men, whilst the upper part, which evidently was yet to expand, showed 

 the features of the other. Thus Nature answered her own problem 

 which she had put to me." (P. 34) 



We are tempted to ask why Mr Martin has not acquired the 

 " knowledge of which [he is] ambitious " ? The number of common 

 British grasses is not large ; every manual contains their description. 

 But it is only too clear that Mr Martin has not even a slight acquaint- 

 ance with grasses, for he talks of ' the blossom ' when he means the 

 inflorescence, just as he speaks of a ' specimen ' when he means a 

 species. And what was the plant after all ? He tells us that "Nature 

 answered her own problem," but does not give us her reply. We 

 feel inclined to imitate Nature in " putting a problem " to Mr Martin 

 — What useful purpose can be served by printing paragraphs of this 

 kind? 



Mr Martin made the strikingly original observation that the flowers 

 of the everlasting pea turn blue when fading. He then "watched the 

 creeper closely, with the result that it has borne blossoms which were 

 blue in the first place." This curious consequence of Mr Martin's 

 vigilance leads him to say — " the seeds it will be well to collect " : 

 but he was counting his chickens too soon, for on p. 77 we read : " In 

 a former letter I referred to the blue blossoms of the everlasting pea 

 which had appeared in my garden. Neither of them have been suc- 

 ceeded by the usual pods of seeds, so that I shall not have the satis- 

 faction of rearing seedlings from them, as I had anticipated." Can Mr 

 Martin suppose that this kind of thing adds to our knowledge ? 



But the author rises to higher flights than these. " You know," 

 he says, " the yucca, which is said [inaccurately, but this Mr Martin 

 does not know] to flower but once in a hundred years. Then comes 

 such a burst of brilliance that it requires a period equal to that which 

 allows our orb to roll its ponderous body along its tremendous path 

 around the sun, a hundred times or thereabouts, in order to recover 

 its flowering energy. What an act of self-denial is this : what an act 

 of self-immolation, in order that its duty may be fulfilled ! " The only 

 parallel to this reflection is one which occurred some years since in 

 the catalogue of a picture exhibition in South London — " Scene in 

 Ceylon : Elephants bathing. How much the elephants in the Zoo 

 have given up for our sakes ! " 



The book is full of inanities and ineptitudes, and the literary style 

 is in harmony with the subjects discussed. If a fly tumbles into the 

 milk-jug, Mr Martin speaks of its ' unwelcome last sad bath.' Dead 

 nettles are ' magnificent ' and ' gorgeous.' Certain flowers smell like ' a 

 glass of sherry ' ; two plants in the same paragraph ' rejoice in ' their 

 names. The author speaks of his ' legal brother,' as if he had another 



