198 



HOME AND FLOWERS 



CHAT. 



^ This issue will be sent to several of our 

 friends, and we trust the prizes offered 

 above will cause many of them to compete 

 for prizes offered, and which will go to the 

 winner. 



Short, spicy "flats" are wanted, and we 

 hope you will at least send one with your 

 list. "Forms" will be used sparingly, and 

 will be defined from the Standard Diction- 

 ary. 



The reversal is a puzzle having, a word for 



an answer which heads in each direction — 

 e. g., War-Raw. 



To old formists we will say. Do not throw 

 it aside because the forms are small, but 

 we think it will take some study to solve 

 them all. "Sweet Sixteen" has just purchased 

 a new Standard, and has done very well in 

 what she attempted to do; doubtless we 

 shall hear from her again. The balance of 

 the puzzles are by Gentle Annie and Aunt 

 .Jane, who are ever ready to help the poor 

 editor. Aunt Eunice. 



With the N e w Books 



ANY fool can destroy trees, says John 

 Muir, in his book, "Our National 

 ^ Parks" (Houghton, Miflain & Co.), 

 but "it takes a wise man to preserve a 

 forest." The forests of America, says Mr. 

 Muir, "however slighted by man, must have 

 been a great delight to God; for they were 

 the best He ever planted." Uncle Sam has 

 seldom been called a fool in business mat- 

 ters, yet Mr. Muir points out that he has 

 sold millions of acres of land at $2.50 an 

 acre upon which a single tree was worth 

 more than $100. This story of "Our National 

 Parks" will help greatly to arouse us from 

 our almost fatal lethargy in the matter of 

 forest preservation. Mr. Muir writes only 

 of the national parks and forest reserves of 

 the western United States, with which he is 

 personally familiar. Westward of a line 

 drawn from the north to the south of the 

 United States and beginning with the east- 

 ern boundary of Montana there are five na- 

 tional parks and thirty-eight forest reserva- 

 tions, containing over 40,000,000 acres of 

 land, and as yet but a beginning is made in 

 the plans of the national and state govern- 

 ments that will preserve and extend our 

 forests and keep that great region from be- 

 coming an arid desert. 



Mr. Muir knows every redwood in Cali- 

 fornia, and has counted all the sequoias — 

 but he does not tell you how many there are. 

 There are no statistics in the book. He 

 fills us with such love for the wonders and 

 beauties he writes of that our one desire is 

 to journey with him across the polished 

 glacier meadows whose rocks are shining 

 silver in the sunlight. We choose a stormy 

 day to climb with him the electric peak 

 and stand the shocks until our hair cracks 

 like whips. He even writes tenderly of 

 rattlesnakes, and makes us regret with him 



the two he felt obliged to kill. When snow 

 is ten feet deep, with him, we wonder what 

 instinct causes the woodchuck to leave its 

 hole and follow it far up on the mountain 

 side where in a sheltered, sunny nook it 

 feeds on early green things. He names for 

 us each tree and conifer, and tells us how 

 they came there. He knows every flower 

 that blows, each moss and lichen are at his 

 call, while the rocks tell him their history, 

 and the geysers have no secrets from him. 

 Those of us who love Mr. Muir's "California 

 Mountains" will not need to be told of the 

 masterly style and charm of this later book. 



Mr. Charles Henderson's "Picturesque 

 Gardens" (Peter Henderson) will answer 

 many questions for the improvement associ- 

 ations, as well as for the amateur gardener. 

 The book averages tWo illustrations to each 

 page of its 160 pages, printed on finely 

 calendared paper. The press work is from 

 the famous Mt. Pleasant Printery at Har- 

 risburg, Pennsylvania. A brief explanatory 

 text accompanies each illustration, telling 

 just what trees, shrubs, plants and bulbs 

 have been used to produce certain effects 

 of foliage and color. 



The subject is treated in a very logical 

 manner. Opening with gateways and en- 

 trances, it treats of lawns and their em- 

 bellishment, which last includes everything, 

 from flower beds to sun-dials. In the chap- 

 ters devoted to gardens every known va- 

 riety of garden, from the city back yard 

 to the splendid Italian and old walled gar- 

 dens, is amply pictured. Other chapters 

 treat of roses and rosariums, water and bog 

 gardens, rockeries and wall gardens, wild 

 gardens and ferneries, vines and their use, 

 piazza and balcony decoration — until it all 

 ends with conservatory and court interiors. 



