LITERARY NOTES 



159 



Among' School Gardens. By M. Louise 

 Greene, M.Pd., Ph.D. New York: Chari- 

 ties Publication Committee. 

 The managers of the Russell Sage Founda- 

 tion have here done good work in placing 

 in convenient and effective form this in- 

 teresting material of an important phase of 

 outdoor interests. 



Methods in Plant Histology. By Charles J. 

 Chamberlain, A.M., Ph.D. Chicago: The 

 University of Chicago Press. 

 This second edition of a book well and 

 favorably known to biologists has been com- 

 pletely revised and considerably enlarged. 

 It contains much valuable material for the 

 user of the microscope whether amateur or 

 professional. 



Pets of The Household. By Thomas M. Earl. 



Columbus, Ohio: The Livingston Seed 



Company, Publishers. 

 We receive many inquiries regarding 

 caged birds but cannot take the time nor the 

 space to answer them all. Send twenty-five 

 cents to the Guarantee Bird Company, 796 

 Eighth Avenue, New York City, and obtain a 

 copy of this' book, and you will have the 

 whole thing before you. 



Advanced Bee Culture. By W. Z. Hutchin- 

 son. Medina, Ohio. The A. I. Root 

 Company. 



This is an interesting, thoroughly prac- 

 tical book for the experienced worker with 

 honeybees. Mr. Hutchinson, the well-known 

 editor of the "Bee-Keepers' Review," is a 

 specialist in honeybees. Here is his charac- 

 teristic statement: 



"In reply to the query, 'What will best 

 mix with bee-keeping?,' I have always re- 

 plied, 'Some more bees.' When the condi- 

 tions are favorable I am decidedly in favor 

 of bee-keeping as a specialty — of dropping 

 all other hampering pursuits, and turning 

 the whole capital, time, and energies into 

 bee-keeping. If bee-keeping can not be 

 made profitable as a specialty, then it is 

 unprofitable as a subsidiary pursuit. If bee- 

 keeping must be propped up with some other 

 pursuit, then we had better throw away bee- 

 keeping and keep the prop." 



The book is, therefore, not the best for 

 a beginner but contains much valuable in- 

 spiration and incentive useful to the begin- 

 ner as well as to the experienced apiarist. 



In "Bird-Lore" for August, Mabel Osgood 

 Wright continues her serial on "Birds and 

 Seasons in the Garden of a Commuter's 

 Wife." Professor Cooke gives records of 

 the migration of sparrows, based on thous- 

 ands of observations made throughout the 

 country. There are numerous studies of 

 bird life illustrated with photographs from 

 nature, as well as colored plates, a special 

 department for teachers, and all the news of 

 the most recent activities of the Audubon 

 Societies. 



The Practical Flower Garden. By Helena 

 Rutherfurd Ely. New York: The Mac- 

 millan Company. 

 A well written, convenient book with beau- 

 tiful, full page illustrations, some of them in 

 colors. 



How to Read Character in Handwriting. By 



Mary H. Booth. Philadelphia: The 

 John C. Winston Company. 

 One's physique and physiognomy, and the 

 method of using the English language and 

 even of writing it, are but expressions of the 

 inner man. Of all expressions of character 

 in handwriting this is a very suggestive 

 little book. 



The North American Slime-Moulds. By 



Thomas H. MacBride, A.M., Ph.D. New 

 York: The Macmillan Company. 

 This is the authority for the professional 

 worker with slime-moulds and also con- 

 tains much interesting material for the 

 general nature student. Indeed, some of it, 

 especially the plates, would interest the 

 boys and girls. The editor of this' magazine 

 not a long time ago prepared an interesting 

 illustrated article from this book for "St. 

 Nicholas." 



Ruskin; A Study in Personality. By Arthur 

 Christopher Benson. New York: G. P. 

 Putnam's Sons. 



This volume consists of seven lectures 

 on the life and work of Ruskin, delivered 

 in the Hall of Magdalene College, Cambridge. 

 The sketch, which the author claims is not 

 a finished portrait, evinces much sincere 

 love and admiration for Ruskin's message 

 and example. The author very nicely sum- 

 marizes Ruskin's disappointment at not be- 

 ing able to get the whole world to ap- 

 preciate natural beauty and interest. He 

 says as follows: 



"He took for granted that the spirit which 

 loved and admired and welcomed beauty, 

 and drank at its springs, was there in hu- 

 manity, but as the years went on he began 

 to see that it was not so. He saw that, 

 all the world over, the majority of the 

 human race had no care or love for these 

 things at all. He had believed that human 

 beings were dull, only because they admired, 

 or tried to admire, the wrong things, and he 

 had thought that they had only to be shown 

 the right things to admire and love them. 

 But he found that people were at heart in- 

 different, and worse than indifferent; that 

 the world was full of ugly desires and low 

 delights; that men were selfish and cruel 

 and sensual ; that they loved wealth and 

 comfort and display; that many people lived 

 from childhood to age under the shadow of 

 base influences and devastating tyrannies; 

 and so he began to see that if they were to 

 admire and love what was pure and noble, 

 it was not enough to point out the work 

 of great artists, but the nature of man must 

 be somehow purged and changed." 



