THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 1 1 9 
marks of the blossom as there are fruits that do. Witness the 
cherry, plum, peach, tomato, gooseberry, currant and grape, to 
say nothing of such wildings as the mandrake, the cranberry and 
the elderberry. The one fact underlying this matter is that in 
temperate regions, the two families of plants that give us most of 
our edible fruits, happen to be the rose and heath families, both 
of which bear fruits crowned with the remains of the blossom. 
But in both these families there are fruits like the choke-berry 
(Aronia nigra) and the squaw huckleberry (Vaccinium stam- 
mcum) that are inedible. 
The question why the general public should prefer articles of 
this kind to less startling and more truthful information is one 
that deserves more than a passing thought. It would seem that 
it cannot be ascribed entirely to ignorance, but has a deeper 
psychological origin inasmuch as mankind has always turned a 
credulous ear toward marvellous stories of plants and in their be- 
liefs endowed many of them with supernatural powers. The le- 
gends of the mandrake and the elder of the mystic fernseed and 
the wonderful spring wurzel that would open any lock, are in- 
stances of beliefs once current. And while we no longer accept 
such stories for the truth a large number of people still hold to 
ideas concerning plants that are almost as incredible, or exhibit a 
willingness to believe extraordinary stories about them that is 
most surprising. 
BOOKS AND WRITERS. 
The reviewer rarely comes upO'U a book devoted to sciences 
other than botany that he cares to recommend to his readers, but 
in the case of Samuel J. Hunter's "Elementary Studies in Insect 
Life," published by Crane & Co., Topeka, Kansas, he feels that 
such a recommendation is not unwarranted. He does not re- 
member to have seen a book devoted to insects that contained a 
greater number of related facts and that was written in a more 
charming manner than this one. The book is not a manual for 
identifying insects, although it contains an excellent key to the or- 
ders and principal families, but aims rather at developing some of 
the biological problems presented by the insect world. Such sub- 
