290 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



REVIEWS OF BOOKS. 



"Eton Nature: Study and Observational Lessons." By M. D. Hill 

 and W. M. Webb. 8vo. Part I. 155 pp. Part II. 174 pp. (Duckworth, 

 London.) 3s. 6d. net each. 



Like other books of this class, the "Lessons" are chiefly on the 

 Aniinal and Vegetable Kingdoms, with one on Clouds. It is beautifully 

 illustrated. Of course, it consists almost entirely of facts to be observed. 

 Their use is to excite an interest in Nature, and supplies information. 

 Such is the preliminary stage of education. Young people, as a rule, are 

 inquisitive, and ask "whys " and "wherefores," and it would add interest 

 to the lessons if the teacher supplemented the observations with additional 

 matter. Thus, a good figure of " The Flower of a Dwarf Bean " is given 

 for the sake of observations on the pod ; but the opportunity of explaining 

 the screw-like keel is missed. There is no mention of its pollination. 

 The method of describing everything minutely cultivates the observing 

 powers and trains the pupil in acquiring an accurate habit of mind. This 

 is the chief value of Nature-study, or, rather, object lessons in natural 

 history ; but they must not be regarded as an " end," but only a preliminary 

 " means ' ' towards instruction and true education. These can only be attained 

 by taking some subject, either botany or zoology, and following it out, by 

 examinations of entire examples, making full descriptions, accompanied by 

 laboratory work and other indoor study with the aim of ecology, i.e. the 

 application of a plant's morphology and anatomy to its actual requirements 

 while living in its natural habitat. The only danger, as it appears to 

 us, is to continue object lessons too long before beginning botany as a 

 school subject, and to avoid its degenerating into cramming, which is the 

 accumulation of facts, without their interpretation. 



" Guide to the Principal Families of Flowering Plants." By T. Adams. 

 8vo. 46 pp. (Sealy, Dublin.) Is. net. 



This little pamphlet is offered as likely to be useful to gardeners, nursery- 

 men, and students for examinations &c. It consists of an elaborate analytical 

 guide to find out the name of any family. To a beginner the labour in 

 discovering the name of a plant is often very great and tedious, and in the 

 end uncertain. This is due to the fact that species are not absolute 

 entities, and often exhibit a character growing in one place which is not 

 possessed by the same species elsewhere, and so not recorded in a "flora." 

 To find a family is less difficult ; but unless the descriptions cover all 

 possibilities, even with them the result may be uncertain. With regard 

 to the present Guide we cannot regard it as an improvement on Bentham's 

 "Analytical Key" (the usual French method) at the beginning of his 

 handbook. 



It is the exceptions which puzzle beginners. Thus the author says 

 of a primrose : " The leaves show a net- veined arrangement, and the parts 



