86 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



H. Bailey, the editor of the series, followed by books about 

 tlie cow, the vegetable garden, and vacati(»n camping, with 

 promise of many more of similar nature. Dr. Bailey's book 

 might be described as a series of essays on the history, botany, 

 cultivation, propagation, and uses of the apple. From the first 

 chapter which describes a land "where there is no apple tree" 

 to the seventeenth and final chapter on the "appraisal of the 

 apple tree" the book is full of information told in an attractive 

 way. The apple is one of the oldest of cultivated fruits. 

 Charred remains of diminutive apples have been found on 

 the sites of the prehistoric lake dwellings in Switzerland. 

 The apple seems to have originally grown wild in central Eu- 

 rope but has since followed man to all the cooler parts of the 

 world and now is found wald in many of them. It is so much 

 a part of the landscape that the author devotes one chapter 

 to this phase of his subject. The book is w-ell worth reading, 

 not only by lovers of out-doors but by commercial growers 

 of the fruit as well. The price is $1.50. 



It perhaps needs a peculiar type of mind to get excited over 

 the study of grasses. The flow-ering parts are so unlike tlie 

 flow^ers of better known plants that the novice is much per- 

 plexed at beginning. In Agnes Chase's "First Book of Grass- 

 es," issued by tlie Macmilan Company, New York, the author 

 w-ell says that it is impossible to make a book on how to know 

 the grasses that may be used w'ithout mental effort, but those 

 who really want to study these plants no longer have the excuse 

 that they lack directions for beginning. In this new grass 

 book, a very clear account is given of the puzzling structure 

 of the flowers accompanied by many of the excellent drawings 

 for which the author is noted. The book begins with the 

 simplest and plainest forms and carries the student on through 

 a series of twelve lessons to the more complex variations from 



