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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



printed, and adorned with lovely illustrations of the photographic 

 type, there is not much in it that will appeal to the garden lovers 

 on this side of the Atlantic. We quite agree with the author that 

 natural effects are much the best, and carried out on a big scale the 

 effect is all one could desire, but in Britain it is only in comparatively 

 few places where these ideas can be carried out. The author writes in 

 a most charming poetic and artistic style, making his book very pleasant 

 reading, quoting the works of many well-known British and American 

 landscape gardeners, giving instances of American masterpieces, includ- 

 ing the principal public parks, town and roadside planting, etc. 



"The Outlook to Nature." By L. H. Bailey. 8vo., 290 pp. 

 (Macmillan, New York, 1905.) 5s. net. 



This interesting book contains four lectures on " The Eealm of the 

 Commonplace," "The Country and City," "The School of the 

 Future," and " Evolution — the Quest of Truth." 



The object of the first well shows how much is lost to the city man 

 or other person whose mind has never been directed to read Nature's 

 lessons, much less profit by them. To a thorough student, like the 

 author, nothing is unworthy of observation, from a mouse to a sunrise. 

 People write poetry about Nature, but Professor Bailey's estimate is 

 that such is 7iot Nature poetry, but largely silly and bookish. 



The contrast of the want of an appreciation of " naturalness " on 

 the city mind was well shown in a street scene he witnessed. A crowd 

 was, as usual, going along. Suddenly a little dog rushed from an open 

 door. Two children scampered after it, caught it, laughingly, and 

 carried it lovingly in. The men stopped, gazed, then cheered ! It was 

 "only an episode of genuine, spontaneous, and unaffected human 

 nature," but it suddenly woke up a feeling for naturahiess in all 

 of them. 



The contrast between the city mind and the country is continued in 

 the second lecture. As to the school of the future. Professor Bailey 

 takes the following as his text : A child was asked w^hat an educated 

 man was. She replied : " He is one that does not work." " This is a 

 popular conception, that education does not put one into direct relation 

 . with the affairs of life. It was an old idea that education makes a man 

 accomplished. It is the new idea that it also makes him useful." 



The last lecture, on " The Quest of Truth," is an admirable and 

 concise epitome of the grounds on which evolution is based, which ought 

 to satisfy the few still remaining disbelievers in this doctrine. The 

 author gives a summary of the chief studies which supply innumerable 

 facts — " Palaeontology, embryology, comparative anatomy, physiology, 

 genealogy, successive increase of differentiation [we might add 

 degradation] , the great fact of adaptation, distribution with variations, 

 variation with intergradient forms, domestication " (and experimental 

 verification). Concluding, the author says: " It seems to me that we 

 are to pass the Age of Doubt. . . . The verities of religion lie deeper 



