LITERARY NOTICES 



367 





LITERAK 



NOTICES 



The Embryology of the Honey Bee. By 

 James Allen Nelson, Ph. D. Prince- 

 ton, New Jersey: Princeton Univer- 

 sity Press. 

 This book was needed; Dr. Nelson has 

 well supplied that need. We owe a debt of 

 gratitude to him and to the Princeton Uni- 

 versity- Press for giving- us this permanent 

 record of an intensely interesting scientific 

 investigation. The apiarian magazines have 

 had much to say about it, the embr3'ologist 

 will find it valuable, but we especially de- 

 sire to call attention to it on account of its 

 interest to the microscopist. The book gives 

 him something to do along a fascinating 

 line of investigation. The drawings ma}- be 

 easily understood and followed by even the 

 novice in microscop3^ as they are beauti- 

 fully plain and clear. The book is one of 

 the most delightful guides that have come 

 to the reviewer's desk. 



The Charl.\t.\x's Prophecy. By George 

 Klingle. Boston. Massachusetts: 

 Richard G. Badger, Toronto, Can- 

 ada: The Copp Clark Company, Limi- 

 ted. 

 While this book does not come within 

 the immediate scope of The Guide to Na- 

 ture we are glad to give it notice because 

 of the well-known work that the author 

 did in the department that she formerly 

 conducted in this magazine, under the title 

 of "The La Rue Holmes Nature Lovers 

 League." She is a nature lover, and a stu- 

 dent of considerable ability and much en- 

 thusiasm. 



"The Charlatan's Prophecy" is a roman- 

 tic love story, well worth reading, not only 

 for entertainment, but for its educational 

 value. The scene is laid in the Thirteenth 

 Century, during one of the most exciting 

 periods in the history of Venice. 



The American Boys' Book of Bugs^ Butter- 

 flies AND Beetles. By Dan Beard. 

 Philadelphia. Pennsylvania, and London, 

 England : J. B. Lippincott Company. 

 "Is there a boy with soul so dead 

 Who never to himself has said 

 *I like the woods and swampy places 

 More than stiff shirts and whitewashed faces? 

 I love all bugs, fish, worms and mice 

 Live outdoor things I think are nice ; 

 To follow Dan on walks and hunts 

 Will make a man out of a dunce. 

 And 'tis for this I say to you 

 Go buy his book and read it through.' " 



Dan Beard stimulates boys to go out into 

 the woods and fields to develop a love of the 

 beauties and a curiosity concerning the mystery 



of nature, to observe and understand the 

 ways of living things. The man who does 

 this is the man of whom parents are glad to 

 hear as they realize that his books must be 

 of more real value to their boys than are the 

 common and multitudinous stories of athletics 

 and crude adventure. 



Dan tells the boys in his own inimitable 

 way of the fun and value that is derived in 

 making a collection of insects. If the boy 

 has this book, whether he is in the suburbs, 

 the far country, the mountain or the seashore 

 he will be happy ; he will have plenty to do. 

 It is not only in the summer that fun may be 

 had with the little winged and armoured 

 creatures, for in the winter some of the most 

 fascinating discoveries of cocoons and insect 

 life may be made. 



The especial aim is to tell the boy the value 

 of a collection of bugs, butterflies, and beetles, 

 the habits of the most important members of 

 the different tribes, and the best methods of 

 capturing and preserving the specimens. 

 }^Iaking this collection will be the most useful 

 one a boy can make. The birds are the friends 

 of men — collecting their eggs and shooting 

 them may well be considered a crime — but 

 the bugs are usually enemies, they ravage our 

 gardens, poison our orchards, and kill the 

 proudest monarchs of our forests. Let all 

 boys read this book, become impregnated with 

 the divine fire, and take sides with the birds 

 in a relentless war upon the army worms, the 

 gypsy moths, the potato bugs, and all the rest 

 of the host of pillagers that prey upon our 

 food, our lumber and our flowers. 



A curious variety of the common 

 fresh water clam, Unio complanatus, is 

 reported from western Maine. The re- 

 gion is one in which there is no lime- 

 stone, and where even the fieldspars 

 are virtually all soda. The result is 

 that the creatures find almost no lime 

 in the water from which to build their 

 shells. Therefore they thicken the epi- 

 dermis of the normal shell to about 

 twice the common amount, and often 

 embed grains of sand in it. The shape 

 of the shell, also, is somewhat dififer- 

 ent from the commoner form, being 

 almost identical with that of Anodon- 

 ta iiwrgiiiata. The variety is especially 

 abundant in Oxford Coimty, Maine ; it 

 occurs, however, sparingly, at other 

 points in the granite area of New 

 England where lime is wanting. 



