424 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



Path Flower and Other Verses. By Olive 

 T. Dargan. Xew York City : Charles Scrib- 

 ner's Sons. 



This is a dainty little book comprising for 

 the greater part only nature poems. There 

 are delicate verses addressed to a little tree, 

 to a hermit thrush and to the "Path Flower," 

 probably the best from the nature point of 

 view, and from which the book takes its name. 



The British Journal Photographic Alma- 

 nac 1915. 57 East Ninth Street, Xew York 

 City; George Murphy, Inc., General Saks 

 Agents. Paper cover, 50c; cloth, $1.00; 

 postage extra according to Zones. 

 This annual photographic almanac is de- 

 voted mostly to advertisements, and these are 

 perhaps not less interesting than the text. An 

 attractive article on photography with the mi- 

 croscope contains several small but pleasing 

 photomicrographs. 



even the blue of the sky and the glory of the 

 sunset clouds, only last for a short time, and 

 are subject to continual change, but the sheen 

 and coloration of precious stones are the same 

 to-day as they were thousands of years ago 

 and will be for thousands of years to come. 

 In a world of change, this permanence has a 

 charm of its own that was early appreciated. 

 "The object of this book is to indicate and 

 illustrate the various ways in which precious 

 stones have been used at different times and 

 among different peoples, and more especially 

 to explain some of the curious ideas and fan- 

 cies that have gathered around them. Many 

 of these ideas may seem strange enough to us 

 row, and yet when we analyze them we lmd 

 that they have their roots either in some in- 

 Lrinsic quality of the stones or else in an in- 

 stinctive appreciation of their symbolical sig- 

 nificance. Through manifold transformations 

 this symbolism has persisted to the present 

 day/' ' 



"MAIDA" ADOPTKD A FAMILY OF RATS. 



The Curious Lore of Precious Stones. Bv 



George Frederick Kunz, A. M., Ph. D., D. 



Sc, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: J. B. Lip- 



pincott Company. 



This is a beautiful book by an authority on 

 the subject. It is beautiful mechanically, at- 

 tractive in illustration and clearly expressed. 

 The following quotation from the preface will 

 interest our readers : 



"The love of precious stones is deenly im- 

 planted in the human heart, and the cause of 

 this must be sought not only in their coloring 

 and brilliancy but also in their durability. All 

 the fair colors of flowers and foliage, and 



The Great Small Cat and Others. By May 

 E. Southworth. San Francisco, California: 

 Paul Elder & Company. 



Interest in this book will not be limited to 

 those that specially love cats. The personal 

 treatment and the daintiness and delicacy of 

 the entire essay will appeal to any lover of na- 

 ture. Mrs. Southworth possesses literary abil- 

 ity: to it has been added the cooperation of a 

 skilled publishing house. The book is an ar- 

 tistic gem of unusual form. Probably the best 

 chapter is "Maida," a cat that adopted a fam- 

 ilv of white rats, as a r lbstitute for her lost 

 kittens. 



