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THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



Another volume has been added to the long list of books 

 made on the plan of William Hamilton Gibson's ''Sharp 

 Eyes/' books that are designed to show the curious and in- 

 teresting features of the world about us. Clarence M. Weed's 

 ''Seeing Nature First" makes no pretentions to instructing the 

 scientist, but is rather for those who are making a beginning 

 of seeing nature. Though divided into four sections, to which 

 the names of the seasons are given, the book is no mere jour- 

 nal of the days as they pass, such as beginning writers are 

 prone to inflict upon us. The fifty or more essaylets are on 

 such varied subjects as the color of frogs, bumble-bee blos- 

 soms, collecting cocoons, walking ferns, peat mosses, and 

 lizards or salamanders. It is a good book to put into the 

 hands of a boy or girl who shows signs of becoming interested 

 in the outdoor world. It will not only serve as an agreeable 

 introduction to the more formal studies in natural history but 

 should go a long way toward inciting the child to investigate 

 for himself. The book is well illustrated by drawings and 

 photographs, though the artist is by no means the equal of 

 Gibson. It is published by The J. B. Lippincott Company, 

 Philadelphia. 



There are all kinds of ways of breaking into botany and 

 what may seem most attractive to one may have nothing' to 

 recommend it to another. The reviewer, however, would 

 hesitate to recommend Frederick Le Roy Sargent's "Plants 

 and their Uses" to beginning classes in botany, though the 

 book has an immense amount of information in it of the kind 

 that the general public desires and usually has difficulty in 

 obtaining. The chapters on foods, and on flavoring, medicinal, 

 poisonous, and industrial plants will interest readers o'f thisclass. 

 Following these preliminary chapters come others on classifi- 

 cation and the parts of a seed plant, and an extended chapter 

 on various plant groups in which the characteristic features of 

 a large number of plant families and orders are given in 



