of them in their separate spheres, we emerge from our rudimentary 
education with a collection of whoUy detached facts which being 
unrelated, set up a perpetual ferment in our mental digestive organs. 
This separation is, of course, the danger confronting all specialists 
in any field, who in their divisions and sub-divisions, fail to take into 
account the relation of one part of a subject to another. Humanly 
speaking, one man announces that his special field of knowledge ends 
at the chin; the next possibly, has studied from the collar bones to 
the diaphragm; and so detaching one part from another, the human 
frame is mapped out into arbitrary portions. So speciaKsts continue 
to specialize, ignoring the contention of Mr. Dooley, who trium- 
phantly proves the co-relation of some of the remoter parts of our anat- 
omy by announcing that a Japanese can break a man's ankle by blow- 
ing on his eye-ball ! This co-relation is what, by analogy, Mr. Lovell 
does for us. He gathers together his specialized knowledge in at least 
three different fields. His book is botany — and not wholly botany; it 
is entomology — and not wholly entomology; in the last analysis, it 
is Floral Biology. A book of technical knowledge, inexhaustible re- 
search, and personal observation; fact upon fact, piled in an edifice of 
absolute certainty, abundant description of insect and flower and 
field, a wealth of anecdote and quotation, a mountain of statistics 
from which we view the wonders of the world, and are swept on again 
by a torrent of words, comparing, sifting, tabulating, quoting. 
Let it be admitted at once that the book is no "best seller," it is 
not Hght reading in any sense; and more, the reader must be literally 
strong in arm, for no doubt owing to the copious and beautiful illus- 
trations, it is printed on glazed American paper heavy with clay, and 
it is very tiring to hold. Nor is the reader to be carried to the skies 
(intellectually) on flowery beds of ease, — the author pelts him from 
the start, with hard facts and harder words. He must needs provide 
himself with a sturdy mental umbrella as a shelter against the hail- 
storm of such staggering terms as gymnospermous, symbiotic, cycad- 
phytes, amenophily and oligotropisml And there are tables toward the 
end of the book which would shatter the average nerve. 
Yet Mr. Lovell's book can be read by the amateur in gardens, at 
least once, with pleasure; it is a book which can be read many times 
by the worker in gardens, with profit. And it is worthy, not only of 
a star, but a place upon the book shelves of every lover of gardens, and 
of every lover of Nature. 
With the sudden eruption of blue-birds in New York last winter, 
there was danger that we might forget the masterpiece of the Belgian 
poet, — the wonderful story of the Bee. And Mr. Lovell has given us 
keys with which to unlock further mysteries in this fascinating sub- 
ject. Bee monogamy. Why the bee recognizes color. Why bee- 
38 
