io6 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE. 



imperfect. The wall of the ovary has 

 been removed, probably by the rough 

 handling of the person who prepared 

 the section for the microscope, but 

 enough remains to show several inter- 

 esting characteristics. 



Photo 3 is the ovary of Malva rotun- 

 difolia, a plant that produced the 

 "cheeses" of our childhood, which the 



reader, and the writer, too, has many a 

 time devoured with mucilaginous delight. 

 The flattened fruit or "cheese," shown in 

 transverse section by the illustration, 

 here contains twelve cells, each with an 

 ovule, but as the slice is not quite flat 

 ( the fault of the operator ) , the ovules 

 have been cut across at slightly differ- 

 ent levels. 



Literary 



BIOGRAPHICAL 



How to Lay Out Suburban Home; 

 Grounds: By Herbert J. Kella- 

 way, Landscape Architect. Xew 

 York: John Wiley & Sons. 

 This is a book more of inspiration 

 than of doing. It tends to give right 

 ideas, rather than to lay down rules of 

 definite methods. It gives the suburban- 

 ite the "key' to the situation and then 

 he can unlock his particular problem. 

 The following quotation expresses the 

 plan of gradually accomplishing the re- 

 sults desired : 



"Can the ideal be attained? Yes; per- 

 haps not all at once, but little by little 

 as funds permit : The scheme must be 

 outlined and a determined and settled 

 purpose will accomplish what was seem- 

 ingly the unattainable. The house is 

 usually the first thought. Instead the 

 beginning should be on the ground, the 

 location, quality, surroundings, and pos- 

 sibilities for development. The adapt- 

 ability of the site to secure the ideals of 

 the home builder should be considered, 

 whether it is a shrub embordered lawn, 

 a flower garden, or natural or wild 

 grounds. It is possible to create effects 

 on almost any site, but every natural 

 feature should be utilized. A home well 

 begun is half done. Consideration 

 should be given, besides the cost, to the 

 'upkeep' or maintenance. The cheapest 

 method of development and least cost for 

 care is to have mostly lawn and shrub- 

 bery. The more details planned, such 

 as arbors, terraces, and gardens, the 

 greater will be the expense for keeping 

 them in order." 



The book is well printed and beauti- 

 fully illustrated. 



The Open Road: A Little Book for 

 Wayfarers, compiled by E. V. Lu- 

 cas. Xew York^ Henry Holt & 

 Co. i6mo. 1907. Pp. XII., 326. 

 However unwilling one may be to ad- 

 mit it, the fact remains that personal ap- 

 pearance has a greater influence than al- 

 most any other quality apparent at a 

 first meeting. Shirt sleeves, unkempt 

 hair and broken shoes never yet changed 

 a stranger into a friend. It is no less 

 true of the external aspect of a book. A 

 frequent visitor at the public library, or 

 an attendant there, will not rarely see a 

 volume rejected with the remark: "I 

 don't want that. I don't like the print; 

 it doesn't look comfortable." Similar 

 criticism cannot be made against this 

 little book, for it is alluring from start 

 to finish. The artistic "end papers" im- 

 press the observer favorably, for he 

 opens the cover to look at the open road 

 winding across the landscape toward the 

 sunrise, and he closes it with a vision re- 

 maining of the footpath way, and fallen 

 leaves rustling beside the road beneath 

 the crescent moon. 



After a gentle farewell to the winter 

 and the town, the anthologist leads us to 

 the open road, with Titania for a compan- 

 ion, while a lover is singing in the dis- 

 tance. "The Little book," as the compi- 

 ler says, "aims at nothing but providing 

 companionship on the road for the city- 

 dwellers who make holiday. It is just a 

 garland of good or enkindling poetry and 



