THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 113 



of calla lily is not a flower, the poppy seed capsule does not 

 reverse itself in order that the seed may drop out, all wild 

 amaryllises are not unatractive in color, the seed is not a plant 

 egg, the first generation after a cross does not produce a mul- 

 titude of forms, nor do the plants respond to suggesed im- 

 provements or strive to please the improver. It would seem 

 as if the exact facts about plant improvement might be suf- 

 ficiently wonderful without attempting to enhance them by 

 exaggerated statements. In writing books about plants for 

 the instruction or entertainment of children, an author sh< mid 

 possess sufficient botanical knowledge to enable him to dis- 

 tinguish the important from the unimportant, the marvellous 

 from the commonplace, and the truth from attractive fiction. 

 There are too many writers to whom an unfamiliar flower is 

 the only one of its kind, the originator of a new form is a 

 creator, and the working of natural laws in plant growth 

 nothing short of magic. The book we have noticed is well 

 and entertainingly written and should interest the audience 

 for which it is intended, though there are some statements 

 that clearly need to be modified. There are a number of 

 good illustrations, eight of which are in color. A portrait of 

 Burbank forms the fronticepiece. The book is issued by 

 Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, and costs, cloth bound, 

 85 cents. 



A perusal of Charles Francis Saunders' "Useful Wild 

 Plants of the United States and Canada" is likely to confirm 

 the impression held by botanists that there are very few plants 

 of this kind not in cultivation that are worth taking into our 

 gardens. At the same time we perceive that the woods and 

 fields abound in plants of lesser economic importance from 

 which we could undoubtedly produce useful substances were 

 our present supplies to fail ; indeed, in times of scarcity, sev- 

 eral of the wild plants might be depended upon to sustain life 



