THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 63 



ter book for the purpose, provided the particular plant happens 

 to be listed. In a work of this kind, of course, only the more 

 noticeable plants come in for mention, and there is practically 

 nothing in the text regarding their haunts and habits. In the 

 second part of the book the fruits are treated in a similar 

 manner. The book contains 225 pages and is published by 

 The J. B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia, at $1.50 net. 



In Cummings "Nature Study for Primary Grades," is- 

 sued by the American Book Co., we have what seems to the 

 reviewer a series of very practical studies of common things 

 that are not too technical for the pupils for which they are 

 intended, nor yet so simple as to become babyish. We note 

 with pleasure, also, an entire absence of the usual twaddle in 

 which trees, birds and flowers sustain conversational parts. 

 Pupils who use this book should finish it with an intelligent 

 interest in the common objects of out-of-doors and a know- 

 ledge of such things that cannot fail to be of use to them in 

 the more formal courses in science in high-school and college. 

 The book deserves to be widely adopted. 



In our opinion, the book "Wild Flowers Every Child 

 Should Know," by Frederic William Stack, has a rather mis- 

 leading title. Instead of a book on the wildflowers of special 

 note as one would naturally expect to find, it is only another 

 volume relating to the plants of the eastern states. Certainly 

 we should never include the black sanicle, sow thistle, and 

 pepper grass among plants that every child should know, un- 

 less it is assumed that every child should be familiar with even 

 the weeds. As in so many of its predecessors the flowers in 

 this book are arranged according to color, an arrangement 

 likely to be satisfactory when closely adhered to, but we fear 

 that anyone looking for a description of skunk cabbage. Jack 

 in the pulpit, louse-wort or cancer-root would scarcely think 

 of looking in the section devoted to red flowers. The greatest 



