THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 29 



therefore threatens every one who subscribes for the maga- 

 zines. Readers are therefore urged to watch legislation of 

 this kind and to protest to their senators and congressmen 

 when hostile action threatens. 



BOOKS AND WRITERS. 



Readers of this magazine who have followed Dr. W. W. 

 Bailey in his entertaining articles on plants, may have guessed 

 from the manner of treatment that the author is a poet, and 

 such proves to be the case. But those of us who have known of 

 Dr. Bailey's facility in verse-making for many years were 

 nevertheless surprised at the versatility displayed in the hand- 

 some volume entitled "Poems" that appeared from the press of 

 the Preston and Rounds Company last year. About half the 

 book consists of occasional poems read at various gatherings 

 of his college fraternity and therefore not of general interest, 

 though it is understood that the desire to have these poems in 

 convenient form was the main reason for the appearance of the 

 book. The interest of the botanical student in the book will 

 center in the nearly fifty poems on various phases of nature, 

 and in the additional poems of sentiment and childhood which 

 compose the volume. Dr. Bailey's favorite flowers are here 

 "embalmed in verse" as some other poet has said. Glancing 

 through the list of titles we find the houstonia, bloodroot, 

 anemone, painted cup, gentian and other common but inspir- 

 ing flowers ; in fact Dr. Bailey seldom goes far from home for 

 his subjects, having that enviable quality of being able to find 

 interest in even common things. Only a small edition of the 

 book was printed, and those who hope to get a copy should lose 

 no time in ordering. 



Any teacher of botany who cannot get his money's worth 

 out of Ganong's "The Teaching Botanist" must be a peculiar 

 individual. For ten years or more the book has been a strong 



