180 IHI. AMl'RICAN BOTANIST 



read the hook. There are chapters on adaption in species 

 and in(h\ ichials and one on tlie evolution of the nianinials. The 

 reader nia\- doul)t some of the conclusions ch-awn hy the 

 author in the chapters on the future evolution of man. and 

 science and the Book, hut these are not pertinent to tlie main 

 subject and may he disregarded if desired. The fact that the 

 hook has heen reprinted four times is some indication of its 

 popularity. It is published by the Macmillan company, New 

 York. 



But the supreme gift of the fall, tliat \vhich not seen 

 leaves the vear uncrowned and one's memory the [joorer, is the 

 gentian whose twisted buds open to the September sun and 

 rarely as now brave the winds of November. The gentian is 

 a typical wildflower, resenting cultivation, shy and capricious 

 in habit. It may be sought through the livelong day and turning 

 you have at your feet, a dozen erect stems raising their flowers 

 to the sunshine. One year a low meadow will be blue as the 

 sky above, the next not one is to be found. But the flower it- 

 self is openhearted and frank in expression, gladly giving its 

 message of cheer quite unlike its sister the closed gentian 

 whose vase-shaped, dark purplish-blue buds never open. They 

 puzzle their new acquaintance who vainly watches for their 

 unfolding, and their sinister aspect might repel even their true 

 lover and tempt him to relegate them to a place among the 

 mystic herbs gathered in the full of the moon for a witches' 

 cauldron. — Martha B. Fi^int. 



