BOOK NOTES. 



AN ATTRACTIVE NATURE BOOK 



"Flowers and Ferns in their Haunts"* 

 appears as another addition to the rap- 

 idly increasing library of popular botany. 

 The author, Mabel Osgood Wright, be- 

 lieves that in the great out of doors there 

 is a wealth of beauty and enjoyment free 

 to all who will but take the pains to walk 

 about through the fields and use their eyes. 

 Aided by the conversation of one or 2 

 companions a series of interesting ex- 

 cursions is conducted, illustrating what 

 anyone with a desire to know something 

 of the life about him may repeat in his 

 own locality. The writer considers one 

 plant in the field to be worth several in 

 the herbarium, and throughout the book 

 there is the breath of the fields and an 

 admiration of nature that render the vol- 

 ume especially attractive. The book con- 

 tains numerous photogravures that have 

 been well selected for the most part and 

 reproduced with artistic skill by the pub- 

 lishers. The scenes illustrating The com- 

 ing of Spring, The May Apple, Lizard Tail, 

 Fly Amarita, Cat-Tails, and Haunt of the 

 Ferns are excellent. Not even the artistic 

 pose of the attractive girl in the latter view 

 can detract from the value of this scene. 

 The difficulties of photographing scenes 

 from nature can only be appreciated by 

 those who have made the attempt. The 

 book contains some excellent illustrations 

 of this nature. The author, however, 

 has missed the plant's view point in 

 some of the illustrations, particularly 

 in the caseof the stramonium. The au- 

 thor and publishers are to be congratu- 

 lated on their success in illustration. It 

 has been practically impossible in the past 

 to procure cuts reflecting the atmosphere 

 and life conditions which lend the attrac- 

 tion in the study of nature. A book of this 

 character gives a happy forecast of future 

 volumes that shall not furnish us with 

 scraps and broken bits of plant life, but 

 which shall show their environment and 

 ecological surroundings, which afford the 

 chief charm to out of door life. 



"Sonnets to a Wife" may seem to find a 

 hardly suitable place for review in Recre- 

 ation, but the author, Ernest McGaffey, 

 is also the author of "Poems of the Rod 

 and Gun," and those of us who have read 

 that volume will surely give him a hearing 

 when he writes on other themes. This last 

 book is not a record of maudlin sentiment, 

 but a tribute, clean, sweet and strong to 



*8vo, pp. XIX— 358. New York, Macmillan 

 Co., 1 90 1. 



pure and noble womanhood : the mature 

 offering of what is best in a man to ihe 

 woman he worships. As such it deserves 

 notice. We quote from his lines on "Con- 

 tentment" as a hint of what may be found 

 throughout this little book of sonnets : 



To glean the fields of life and take the grain 



With thorns or poppies, as the gods decree; 

 To lightly jest at Winter's wrath and see 



Flowers in frost upon the window pane; 



To build our airy castle-walls in Spain, 

 However bare the near surroundings be — 

 This is the secret of content: the key 



Which men have given all the world to gain. 



"Nature Biographies," by Prof. C. M. 

 Weed, treats, as its further title states, of 

 "the lives of some everyday butterflies, 

 moths, grasshoppers and flies." These 

 articles have previously been published in 

 various magazines and are now brought 

 together, in attractive book form, by 

 Doubleday, Page & Co., New York. There 

 are 150 illustrations from photographs by 

 the author, which add greatly to the value 

 of the book. The publishers will send this 

 volume postpaid to any address on ap- 

 proval. 



C. V. Waite & Co., Chicago, have re- 

 cently published a 5th edition of the "His- 

 tory of the Christian Religion," to the year 

 200, by C. B. Waite, A. M., which has 

 been carefully revised and printed from 

 entirely new plates. In his preface the 

 author states that "It is believed this will 

 be found the most complete record of the 

 events connected with the Christian relig- 

 ion during the first 2 centuries that has 

 ever been presented to the public/' 



Are you saving your photo prints? If 

 not, begin at once. Send me 2 yearly sub- 

 scriptions to Recreation, at $1 each, and 

 I will send you a Buechner album that 

 will hold 100 4x5 prints. It will be of 

 great value to you in showing the pro- 

 gress you make in your photography, 

 from the first page to the last, and your 

 prints will always recall interesting mem- 

 ories. 



Casey — Wasn't ye shocked and pained to 

 hear av Clancy's sudden death? 



Costigan — Indade and Oi was ! He owed 

 me thirty-five cints. 



Mrs. Farmer (to tramp) : Are you look- 

 ing for work? 



Ruby Knose: No, lady; I'm lookin' 

 fer sympathy. I've hed 6 jofes offered me 

 in 2 hours. 



3"4 



