XII 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE LITERARY NOTES 



Practical Field Botany. By A. R. Horwood, 

 F. L. S. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: J. B. 

 Lippincott Company. 



This is an English book written with both 

 genuine amateur and professional spirit. Its 

 numerous illustrations are out of the ordinary, 

 and convey new ideas, especially in the 

 mounting and arrangement of specimens for 

 the herbarium. 



Bill's School and ]\!ixe. By William Sud- 

 dards Franklin. South Bethlehem, Penn- 

 sylvania : Franklin, Macnutt and Charles. 

 An interesting collection of essays to which 

 the keynote is the author's statement in his 

 preface, that "some things in this world are 

 to be understood by sympathy, and some 

 things are to be understood by serious and 

 painful effort." 



Nature Notes For Ocean Wu-agers. By 

 Captain Alfred Carpenter, R. N., D. S. O., 

 and Captain D. Wilson-Barker, R. N. R. 

 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: J. B. Lippin- 

 cott Company. 

 This book presents a comprehensive survey 



of the life, conditions and phenomena in the 



great ocean depths. An amusing anecdote is 



worth printing : 



"^^jsthetic Passenger (to old ."^alt) : 'Can 



you tell me, my good man, the name of that 



fine bird hovering about?' 



"Old Salt : That's a halbatros, sir." 



"^. P. : 'Dear me ! Quite a rara avis, is it 



not?' 



"Old Salt: 'Dunno, sir, Fve always heard it 



called a halbatros s.' 



^. P. : 'Yes, yes, my good fellow, but 1 



call that a rara avis, just as I call you a Genus 



homo.' 



"Old Salt (indignantly) : Oh, do you ? Then 



I calls that a halhatross, just the same as I 



calls vou an old humbug.' " 



Seehearwrite. Guide to taking notes in Na- 

 ture Studv for "Hunters of the Beautiful.'' 

 By D. S. Hartline, A. M., Head of Depart- 

 ment of Biology, State Normal School, 

 Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. Bloomsburg, 

 Pennsylvania : George E. Elwell & Son. 

 This is a novel form of notebook. It is 

 unlike anything else that the reviewer has 

 ever seen. It consists of a pocket, doubled 

 somewhat like that commonly used by clerks 

 in a store, and contains a large number of 

 appropriate quotations, many of them of a 

 religious nature. The principal quotation is, 

 "Be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors ; And the 

 King of Glory shall come in." This is in 

 ornamental t3'pe within an appropriate em- 

 blematic design. The whole thing is so 

 unique that we suggest that our readers write 



to Professor Hartline for descriptive circu- 

 lars and particulars. 



One of the novel suggestions is, 



"Bring a nice lot of (a) VVotisits, 



(b) Wantunos." 



The Pocket Nature Library. Tree Guide 

 (Trees East of the Rockies) by Julia Ellen 

 Rogers. Flower Guide (Wild Flowers East 

 of the Rockies), Bird Guide (Water Birds, 

 Game Birds and Birds of Prey East of the 

 Rockies) and Bird Guide Part 2 (Land Birds 

 East of the Rockies) bv Chester A. Reed. 

 700 Color Plates, 1,000 text Pages. Bound 

 in Leather. Price, $4.50. Garden City, New 

 \'ork : Doubleday, Page & Co. 

 These four books are convenient, attractive 

 and efficient. What more can be said? When 

 one goes afield if several books are taken in 

 addition to the necessary apparatus they be- 

 come literally impedimenta, but with these- 

 special books one can carry a library covering 

 the flowers, the trees and the birds. It probably 

 will not be necessary to take more than one 

 book on birds since one volume is devoted to 

 land birds and the other to water. It is a de- 

 light to sit under a tree, consult a little book 

 and compare the color plates with the living 

 bird and thus identify and fix it in mind. 



jMiss Roo-ers has produced one of our best 

 books on trees and her simplification into this 

 pocket volume should elicit the gratitude of 

 everv lover of trees. 



Star Lore of All Ages. By William Tyler 



Olcott. N^ew "^'ork City : G. P. Putnam's 



Sons. 



^lany of our amateur astronomers will find 

 this book especially delightful. We not only 

 like to know the names of the stars and some- 

 thing of celestial mechanics but also want to 

 know the beautiful myths and legends that time 

 and fanc}^ have woven about them. People 

 who admire the beauty of the stars may learn 

 to love them b}- reason of the literar}^ and leg- 

 endary association recalled by their appearance. 



The author, as "Who's Who in America" 

 tells us. is a lawyer, but it is evident that he is 

 also an enthusiastic amateur astronomer, since 

 he has written several important and interest- 

 ing books on the subject. A further aim has 

 been to revive an interest in the mythology 

 that twines about the stars. It has seemed 

 but right that this wealth of star lore, -buried 

 in the treasury of the past, should be brought 

 to the light, to charm and interest those who 

 scan the skies. The same author has issued 

 another volume entitled "Sun Lore of All 

 Ages." This is devoted to mythology, folk 

 lore, sun worship, emblematic and symbolic 

 forms of the sun and to the sun as r' vealed by 

 science. Both books are valuable. They cover 

 the entire field in a masterly manner. 



