168 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. [ July, 
CURRENT LITERATURE. 
Little Flower-People. By Gertrude Elizabeth Hale. Boston: Ginn & Co, 
1887. 12°. pp. 85. Illustrated. 
Here is a book to be commended, both for what it attempts to do and 
for what it really does. The author wishes to interest children in some 
oi the elementary facts of scientific botany. To do this she personifies 
the chief organs of the plant and relates how these several members ofa 
household assist one another and the results they bring about. Thus 
each flower is a mistress attended by leaf, stem and root servants, and by 
the activity of the servants the life and perpetuation of the plant 1s 
assured. 
The literary part is well done, the botanical part irreproachable (to 
be said of but few children’s books), and the child that can read St 
Nicholas or Wide Awake with profit will find interest and instruction im 
this pretty volume. The amount of serviceable knowledge, overspread 
with a thin veil of fancy, is really astonishing, and herein lies the danger; 
for if the child is left entirely to himself it may happen that now and 
then he will find thought and language beyond his grasp. 
A Primer of Botany. By Mrs. A. A. Knight. Boston: Ginn & Co, 188. 
Sm. 12°. pp. 115. Illustrated. 
Knight has really 
In the first place the book is not to be put into the hands of the pupil, 
but is onlyto be 
trees and flowers, Presupposing thi the part of 
g this much knowledge on 
the teacher, the Possession of a good compound microscope and a pp 
le, the successful teaching of pupils, who find "PF 
to spell and remember, will depend largely up 
Nearly fifty pages of the book are devoted to the microscopic — 
physiology, and the remaining twenly 
ribution of plants, and the use and = 
ct being treated by Mr. G. N. Cross. 
pages to the Plant body, the dist 
of the microscope, the last subje 
