yXHE BOOK SHELF 



Trees Worth Knoiving. Julia E. Rogers. 290 pp., 16 full page illustrations in 

 color, 32 illustrations from photographs. Doubleday, Page & Co. Price 

 $1.60. 

 Tree lovers ever^'where must always be glad when a tree book appears with 

 Julia Rogers as author. This book tells about trees in a very practical and 

 interesting manner, but is not a book for the identification of trees; it begins 

 with a very clear and interesting chapter on The Life of Trees. No one has 

 ever been able to put so clearly before the uninformed reader the life processes 

 of a tree as has Miss Rogers, and this chapter is a good example of her ability as 

 a teacher. The titles of the chapters show a very pleasing and interesting 

 arrangement of the material. The accounts are succinct and filled with 

 interesting information and are not confined to the trees of the East but include 

 mesquite and other desert growth and the trees of the Pacific Coast. The 

 several chapters discuss, — "The Nut Trees," "Water-loving Trees," "Trees 

 with Showy Flowers and Fruits," "Wild Relatives of our Orchard Trees," 

 "The Pod-bearing Trees," "Deciduous Trees with Winged Seeds," "The Cone- 

 bearing Evergreens," and "The Palms." 



Old Crow Stories, by Katharine B. Judson. 163 pp., with six illustrations. 

 By Charles Livingston Bull. Little, Brown & Co. $1.50. 

 This is a volume of nature myths that are of very first importance to the 

 nature-study teacher, because they are the genuine folk tales about animals of 

 the American Indians of the West. They are written in terse English very 

 like the Indian language in its quality, and they are as interesting as they are 

 naive and delightful. Miss Judson is an authority on these tales, for it is she 

 who has preserved for us in most pleasing form The Myths and Legends of the 

 Mississippi Valley, of the Great Plains, of Alaska, of the Pacific Northwest, and 

 of the old Southwest, in as many volumes. The Old Crow Stories begin with 

 the days when the Old Crow and Raven were white and before the light came. 

 The first story is How Raven Brought the Light, then comes The Thrilling 

 Tale of How Grizzly Bear Stole the Light, and how the Chipmunk got it 

 back again, but the Grizzly Bear chased the Chipmunk who "scampered about 

 until he saw a hole and make a straight line for it. But Grizzly Bear was so 

 near that as Chipmunk dashed into the hole, Grizzly's claw came down on his 

 back and made four long scratches. That is how Chipmunk got the stripes on 

 his back." The other stories tell how Coyote and Grizzly divide their power 

 and establish night and day. How Sun was Made and many other thrilling 

 adventures of the Sun, and many fascinating tales of Coyote, the most cunning 

 of all the animals. Through all the stories the conversations between Old 



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