Book Reviews 



227 



text with apt quotations. And enclosing all his information and divertisement 

 the author has placed on the inside of the covers duplicate maps of the parks 

 and railway connections — a practical and happy consummation of a very wor- 

 thy work. 



Members of the Sierra Club will derive special pleasure from the introduc- 

 tion, which is written by their fellow-member, Horace M. Albright, who is 

 now director of Yellowstone Park. C. N. H. 



A City of The heart thrills to home-made songs even if the singer sing with 

 Caprice* voice somewhat uncertain. This book of verse should interest 

 every San Franciscan who glances at the table of contents — 

 "Land's End," "New Year's Eve," "Telegraph Hill," "In Sanguinetti's," "The 

 Legend of Tamalpais," etc., etc. The poems are of unequal merit.. Three of 

 them, written at Yale, which include a prize poem, might, we think, be omit- 

 ted with profit. If the author should ever abandon his present tasks for poetry 

 (he is an advertising manager), we suggest that he follow vers de societe. In 

 lighter vein he is certainly not without charm. C. N. H. 



Useful Wild Plants In Charles Francis Saunders' latest book, Useful Wild 

 OF THE Plants, we find something of a departure from his 



United States and usual books. Several of those we have seen are delight- 

 CANADAf ful ramblings throughout California, making us ac- 



quainted with the trees and flowers as we go, or, as in 

 one, a guide-book to the points of interest in California. Here, however, we 

 have a guide-book to the useful and edible plants. He gives us something 

 of the history of these plants — where found, the use made of them by early ex- 

 plorers, and the uses made of them by the Indians. Many a plant which we 

 would pass by unnoticed proves upon expert examination to have been of in- 

 calculable value to the native inhabitant. In some plants the tubers are edible, 

 by boiling or baking; in others the seeds are used, being sometimes eaten raw, 

 or in other cases pounded into a flour and made into mush or baked in cakes. 

 Again, we discover many uses for the fruits which have been so little regarded 

 by the white man, or it is the stems and leaves which are of use in the commis- 

 sary, and last, but not least, the so-called "beverage plants" — and some lively 

 beverages were concocted from these for the delectation of the palate of the 

 red man. Then there were plants used exclusively for medical purposes, first 

 by the natives in the early days, and some of them later to be found in our 

 own Materia Medica. 



Our only criticism of this delightfully interesting book would be that a com- 

 plete bibliography should have been added instead of the occasional foot-notes, 

 which make the references difficult to locate. Mary Van E. Ferguson 



* A City of Caprice. By Neill Compton Wilson. The Overland Publishing Company, 

 San Francisco. 



t Useful Wild Plants of the United States and Canada. By Charles Francis Saunders. 

 Illustrated by photographs and numerous line drawings by Lucy Hamilton Aring. Rob- 

 ert M. McBride & Co., New York. 1920. Pages, 274. Price, $3.00 net. 



