April 28, 1892] 



NATURE 



60 ■ 



Brooke in Borneo, and thence to Queensland. New South 

 Wales, Victoria, West Australia, Tasmania, and New 

 Zealand were successively visited ; but incessant travel- 

 ling, climatal changes, and continuous work had begun 

 to tell on the constitution of this brave woman, who 

 suffered much in the colder regions. Now, the great 

 object was to make the collection of paintings as complete 

 as possible, and she spared neither her pocket nor her 

 person in trying to carry it out. Her book is so essentially 

 the histon of her gallery at Kew that one cannot dis- 

 sociate them. The Australian journey was fruitful beyond 

 all others, and the Australasian section of the gallery is 

 perhaps the most attractive of all, being a marvellously 

 complete representation of the varied and curious flora 

 of that region. The homeward route was across the 

 Pacific, calling at Honolulu, landing at San Francisco, 

 and off at once to the redwood and mammoth-tree forests 

 for more painting. Then across America by the southern 

 route, and back to old haunts in the North-Eastern States, 

 and home again to open the gallery, which had been 

 built during this journey. Hanging the pictures was a 

 most laborious task, from which Miss North took no rest. 

 At this time the writer first made her acquaintance, and 

 was engaged by her to botanize the paintings and com- 

 pile a popular instructive catalogue. This occupied two 

 or three months ; and most interesting work it was, usually 

 brightened by her presence. 



No sooner was the openingof the gallery accomplished, 

 than the terribly jaded donor of this munificent gift to 

 the public began to think of visiting new regions to 

 further enrich it. But I must be brief, for even to 

 catalogue these journeys occupies much space. South 

 Africa was next visited, and several months' uninterrupted 

 work, much of it done under trying conditions of failing 

 health, yielded so bountifully that it was determined to 

 build a wing to the gallery, for the existing walls were 

 already completely covered. 



Miss North intended going from South Africa to Mada- 

 gascar, but the means of communication were irregular 

 and uncertain, and her health so bad that she returned 

 home ; but having to some extent recovered, she went the 

 following year (i 883) to the Seychelles, to paint the beauti- 

 ful palms and screw pines of those islands. Even this did 

 not satisfy her, and she started on her last journey in 

 November 1884. Chili was her goal, and the principal 

 object of this long journey was to paint the Araucaria 

 imbricata in its home, as she had already painted the 

 Brazilian and Australian species. She also succeeded in 

 painting a considerable number of the characteristic 

 types of the vegetation of that country. But this voyage, 

 by way of the Straits of Magellan, tried her waning 

 strength very much, and a less energetic person would 

 have collapsed entirely. In the last chapter of her " Re- 

 collections" we read that all was enjoyment until they 

 reached Bordeau.x. " Then my nerves gave way again 

 (if they were nerves), and the torture has continued more 

 or less ever since." Beautiful Rio was touched on the 

 outward voyage, and on the homeward route, by Panama, 

 old friends were looked up in Jamaica. England was 

 reached in the spring, and it cost another year to re- 

 arrange the gallery ; the introduction of the South African, 

 Seychelles, and Chilian paintings entailing renumbering 

 throughout, in order to preserve the geographical order. 

 NO 1 1 74, VOL. 45] 



The foregoing is an outline of her journeyings, but the 

 book should be got for the details, which are almost 

 always interesting, often clever and quaint. Here and there 

 one meets with uncompromising criticisms and descrip- 

 tions of persons that might have been expunged with 

 advantage. The descriptions of the vegetation of various 

 regions, with particulars of the principal elements, are 

 pleasant and instructive, often containing much original 

 information ; and will be greatly appreciated by those 

 who frequent the gallery at Kew, of which the book, as 

 already stated, contains the history. 



After completing her work at Kew, Miss North took an 

 old-fashioned house at Alderley, in Gloucestershire, where 

 she formed a charming garden ; but her constitution was 

 broken, her suffe rings increased, and she died in August 

 1 890. W. B. H. 



AMERICAN TOWN TREES. 

 Our Trees. By John Robinson, (Salem : Horton and 

 Son, 1 89 1.) 



THIS short account of the trees of an American town 

 and its neighbourhood consists of reprints of 

 newspaper articles written in 1890-91 for the benefit of 

 local readers : they have been re-compiled into book form 

 at the request of the directors of the Essex Institute, and 

 date from the Peabody Academy of Science, Salem. 



Several points strike a careful reader of the book. 

 The writer draws special attention to the fact that the 

 articles, or chapters, are not intended as botanical essays ; 

 and the reader will probably decide that the remark was 

 unnecessary, for a more unscientific work dealing with a 

 scientific subject would be difficult to find ; but there is a 

 peculiar charm in a certain style of talks about natural 

 objects — for instance, in some of the more chatty para- 

 graphs of White's " Selborne," or Walton's " Angler," and 

 even Evelyn's " Flora" — which attracts the most devoted 

 student to refreshing looks around his subject-matter 

 from every-day points of view, and this little work 

 possesses that charm. Few facts of scientific importance 

 are met with in such writings, and still fewer of the 

 generalizations which make science what it is : the 

 specialist may even deride the writing as " talkee- 

 talkee " — gossip, if you will ; and even the broadest 

 thinker may be inclined to wonder why such articles 

 are written ; all this, and more, may be true, and yet — 

 there is the charm, nevertheless, and it is very apt to 

 seem appropriate where trees and flowers are concerned. 

 Whether it is advisable that such writings should increase 

 is a matter likely to settle itself, simply and certainly, 

 because very few can produce them. A scientific work, 

 then, this is decidedly not. It is a series of homely 

 chats about trees, by one who knows and loves them. 

 The latter fact leads to another — namely, that such a 

 writer cannot help telling you something worth learning 

 even though it be by the way, and merely incidental. 



In the first place we gather some ideas as to what trees 

 are common in the streets and gardens of a Massachusetts 

 town, and the evidently thriving condition of magnolias, 

 sumachs, maples, witchhazels, mulberries, hickories, 

 gingkos, catalpas, sassafras, and many other beautiful 

 trees, makes envious one who knows what difficulties are 



