62 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 



motion. With good roads we may be sure getting there and 

 back with ease and celerity. Every plant-lover should be an 

 ardent advocate for good roads. A government that can spend 

 nearly four hundred millions a year preparing for war in a 

 time of peace, can surely afford a few millions for roads and 

 thus add to our peaceableness. 



BOOKS AND WRITERS. 



That there is in this country a regular weekly publication 

 devoted to the study of nature may be news to many, but such 

 a publication exists in "Records of Walks and Talks with 

 Nature" edited by C. J. Maynard, West Newton, Mass. The 

 publication is well along in its second volume and appears to 

 be published for a small circle of students who take Saturday 

 excursions with the editor. The little publication is deserving 

 of a wider circulation. 



If the unbotanical public fails to become familiar v>^ith 

 our wild plants, it will not be the fault of the book-makers. 

 Every time a new guide of a popular nature comes out we 

 think the entire field has been covered, but presently another 

 writer discovers a new short-cut to the flowers and shows us 

 our mistake. The latest addition to the popular texts is the 

 "Practical Guide to the Wild-flowers and Fruits," by Dr. 

 George Lincoln Walton. This is designed for people who 

 know nothing at all about botany and technical terms in con- 

 sequence are reduced to the minimum. As in several other 

 works the flowers in this volume are arranged according to 

 color, but the author goes a step further and by means of eas- 

 ily understood keys has broken up these color groups into 

 lesser divisions, characterized by the arrangement of the leaves, 

 size of the flower, time of blooming, etc. If one is simply try- 

 ing to run down the name of a plant, there seems to be no bet- 



