June i i, 



NATURE 



123 



hopes to find like sympathelii; readers among the many 

 who share tliat love with the two Royal Academicians. 

 Nor do we think he hopes in vain. Admirers of nature 

 are a companionable folk-; they lo\c to compaie notes, to 

 be asked to share each other's triumphs, to admire each 

 other's finds, and among the topics on which Mr. Leslie 

 dilates are many in which they will find an interest. 

 They will be ready with their tribute of admiration for 

 his Iris siisiana and his Cipripcditon spectabile (diverse 

 triumphs , with their sympathetic sorrow at the loss of 

 his old and faithful donkey, and will appreciate his avowal 

 of the inexpressible pleasure he felt at the casual dis- 

 covery of the exquisitely coloured berry of the lily of the 

 valley. " You will, I dare say, lauKh at me for my senti- 

 mentality," he writes. We cannot believe that his corre- 

 spondent did, nor will the appreciative reader. It is the 

 spirit of the true lover of nature, to whom such sights, 

 the more that they come unexpectedly, can ever " bring 

 thoughts that do lie too deep for tears " 



Mr. Leslie confesses to a life-long fondness for garden- 

 ing. He tells us that he had known the Jew's Mallow for 

 more than fifty years before he learnt its botanical name 

 of Kcrria japonica. We doubt if he is happier for 

 the knowledge. We, for our part, love to think of these 

 old favourite flowers by their nicknames, so to speak, and 

 not by the mongrel Latin names of the florists' catalogues. 

 Among plants, as among men, the possession of a nick- 

 name is a sign of popularity, and it is the tender old- 

 world associations that linger round them that give such 

 a charm to some mere list of flowers in the poetry of the 

 Elizabethan age. As regards the name of " Jew's Mallow," 

 which, by the way, belongs to the rather numerous class 

 of plants that cottagers seem to grow better than any one 

 else, Mr. Leslie gives an explanation which is new to us. 

 and which, though doubtless a true one, is far less 

 interesting or suggestive than many a one which our 

 imagination has tried to frame. While on the subject of 

 names, surely Mr. Leslie is wrong in blaming (p. 75) 

 English rose-growers for giving French names to the 

 roses they introduce. In a list of more than 170 kinds 

 we cannot find one case of such unpatriotic conduct, 

 while such well-known instances as Captain Christy, 

 Hon. Edith Gifford, and W. .\. Richardson seem to 

 point the other way. 



The even tenor of Mr. Leslie's narrative is interrupted 

 by two important events — the great flood of November 

 1894, and the long frost of the early part of 1S95, from 

 both of which visitations he escaped comparatively un- 

 scathed. In the case of the latter, he attributes his 

 immunity to having such hardy and well-established 

 plants in his garden ; while in the former, the porous 

 subsoil, chiefly gravel and sand, seems to have allowed 

 the water to drain away, leaving only a little mud behind. 

 We wonder, by the way, that Mr. Leslie found no fish 

 stranded after the water subsided. We saw on that 

 occasion hundreds of little ones, chiefly baby roach, left 

 lamenting in a meadow near Marlow. But light as the 

 visitation was, those who feel inclined to envy him the 

 facilities to which he owes his Buck Bean and Cipri- 

 pcdiuin spectabile, will perhaps tind some consolation in 

 the sketch of his lawn tennis court on November 19, 

 1894, which, as he says, "was covered by four feet of 

 water, and formed a lovely calm pool to boat on. I took 

 NO. 1389, VOL. 54] 



the opportunity in my boat, of clipping the top of a 

 hedge, which was rather too high to reach under ordinary 

 circumstances." A quaint touch. 



Like a true gardener, Mr. Leslie has his gird at the 

 weather, anent the disastrous May frosts of two successive 

 years, and at the devastating efforts of his paid staff, a 

 gardener and a boy, in their attempts to help in the 

 flower garden. In this we cordially sympathise with 

 him. Work among the cabbages and potatoes seems to 

 induce in the former oflicial a breadth of handling quite 

 inconsistent with the delicate stippling (we trust we do 

 not misuse these technical terms) appropriate to the 

 flower garden, while there is no weed, not even couch- 

 grass or bindweed itself, that we would not rather see 

 in our borders than " a boy " with a hoe. 



With the many other topics touched upon by Mr. Leslie, 

 we have here no space to deal. The book is pleasantly 

 illustrated with drawings by the author. In the sketch 

 of the Nuthatch, we cannot think that he is represented 

 quite stoutly enough built. We have very frequent 

 opportunities of seeing one at his work, and have been 

 much struck not less with the great development of the 

 muscles of his neck, than with the evident force with 

 which he uses them, which latter is admirably indicated 

 in this drawing. 



To conclude, Mr. Leslie's book is not, and does not 

 pretend to be, scientific or exhaustive, but it is eminently 

 readable; and those whose lighter occupations lead them 

 to find interest in the same field as Mr. Leslie, will derive 

 much pleasure from the congenial gossip of " Riverside 

 Letters." 



MAN AND NA TURE IN FINMARK. 

 Folk Oi; Nd/iir i Fimiiarken. By Hans Reusch, Ph.D. 

 Pp. 176. 32 Illustrations. (Kristiania : T. O. Brogger, 

 1895.) 



THE district treated of in this volume is one to which, 

 at the present moment, the eyes of the astronomical 

 world are turned with lively interest ; for within its bleak 

 borders the approaching eclipse of the sun will be 

 observed if the atmospheric conditions be favourable. 

 To astronomers, therefore, this book will be specially 

 interesting and opportune ; and not to them alone, but to 

 every traveller who has visited the far north of Norway 

 and sought the midnight sun, and even to the still more 

 numerous class who are compelled to content themselves 

 with acquiring a knowledge of lands and peoples solely 

 from books. It is a model of what a book of travel 

 should be ; all insignificant details are ignored, but we 

 have the observations and suggestions of one of the 

 shrewdest of observers. Dr. Reusch is deeply interested 

 in the commercial progress and social welfare of his 

 fellow countrymen, and his book is full of valuable 

 suggestions for the advancement of both ; while at the 

 same time he is not only just, but very generous in the 

 views he expresses about other races, especially in regard 

 to the Russians, whose territory forms the eastern bound- 

 ary of Finmark. He describes in graphic and, at times, 

 eloquent language the physical and geological features of 

 the desolate interior of this northern province, which lies 

 far within the Arctic circle, its storm-beaten coasts and its 

 inhospitable, silent, stony deserts, where no tree will 



