LITERAK 



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NOTICES 



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In October. 



The green, cool, decorous forest 

 Has taken to madcap ways; 



Its aisles are a riot of color, 

 These mellow October days. 



From the carpet beneath our footsteps, 

 To the canopy over our head, 



All gone are the trappings of Summer, 

 Fall tapestries glowing instead. 



The red maples started the frolic, 

 By doffing their summery green 



For the liveliest flamelets of color, 

 That apart from real fire are seen. 



The oak trees soon followed in order, 

 With aspens in rare golden hue, 



And ashes, cool, furnished the shadows, 

 And sometimes the sunshine too. 



The splendor can only be transient, 

 For all flames were ever short-lived, 



But from no brilliant, worldly pageant 

 Is such soulful pleasure derived! 



— Emma Peirce. 



Fiet n Book of American Wild Flowers. Be- 

 ing a Short Description of Their Char- 

 acter and Habits, a Concise Definition 

 of Their Colors, and Incidental Refer- 

 ences to the Insects Which Assist in 

 Their Fertilization. By F. Schuyler 

 Mathews, Member of the New Eng- 

 land Botanical Club and Author of 

 "Wild Birds and Their Music," etc. 

 New Edition, Revised and Enlarged. 

 With 24 Colored Plates and over 300 

 Other Illustrations from Studies from 

 Nature by the Author. New York City: 

 G. P. Putnam's Sons. 

 It is astonishing that five hundred and 

 eighty-seven pages, profusely illustrated, 

 many of the illustrations being in colors, can 

 be put into a book so convenient that it 

 will slip into an ordinary coat pocket, but 

 it has been done in this case. To the re- 

 viewer this seems to be the best of all the 

 handbooks for field and indoor use with our 

 common wild flowers. The arrangement is 

 commendable; the descriptions are concise 

 and readable, and every quality of the book 

 enables the reader to find readily the illus- 

 tration and the description of a flower. 

 With such a handbook no nature lover has 

 any excuse for not knowing our common 

 plants. 



The Garden under Glass. By William F. 



Rowles. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: 



J. B. Lippincott Company. 

 The culture of fruit, flowers and vege- 

 tables under glass has in this book a practi- 

 cal and timely guide that will be appreciated 

 by the army of Americans now fighting the 

 high cost of living. The book was original- 

 ly published in England, and describes the 

 English practice of growing fruit and vege- 

 tables for the home table. The plans are 

 well worth adopting in America. 



A Textbook of Botany for Colleges. Part II. 

 By William F. Ganong, Ph. D. New 

 York City: The Macmillan Company. 



This book is intended to assist in a gen- 

 eral laboratory course in botany and in the 

 study of botany as a part of a comprehen- 

 sive education. It does not discuss theories. 

 but is truly conservative, adopting only such 

 statements as have survived the test of 

 criticism. It is well arranged and will un- 

 doubtedly appeal to the professional teach- 

 er. It also contains a great amount of ma- 

 terial useful and important for the student 

 of nature in general. 



Ferns A Manual for the Northeastern States, 

 with Analytical Keys Based on the 

 Stalks and on the Fructification. With 

 over Two Hundred Illustrations from 

 Original Drawings and Photographs. 

 By Campbell E. Waters. New York 

 City: Henry Holt and Company. 

 The Photographs in this book are extreme- 

 ly fine and impress one with the beauty 

 of the ferns. Those that desire to study this 

 botanical order will find them helpful in 

 identification. The text is well arranged 

 and not so extensive as to be discouraging. 

 It tells just what one wants to know, and 

 does not enter too deeply into technical de- 

 tails. To the reviewer it seems to be the 

 best obtainable general book on ferns. 

 There are one or two others pretty nearly 

 as good, but this really appears to merit 

 the first place. We recommend it to all our 

 students. 



Louis Agassiz as a Teacher. By Lane 

 Cooper. Ithaca, New York: The Corn- 

 stock Publishing Company. 



A teacher of English has issued this 

 book to prove or perhaps rather to inspire 

 others with the belief that the best method 

 of teaching English is practically the same 

 as that employed by Agassiz in teaching 

 nature. He expresses the purpose of the 

 book as follows: 



