BOOKS FOR YOUNG SELBORNIANS. 
35 
work and wrolc and published his book at his own expense, all for the sake of 
one miserable little ant that slings like a wasp, and is a nuisance in Texas harvest 
fields.’’ We regret that the demands on our space will not allow us to notice 
this excellent book at greater length, but we cordially recommend it to all 
nature-lovers. 
The Religious Tract .Society is not behind the S.P.C.K., some of whose 
books we noticed last year (p. 231), in its anxiety to provide suitable literature 
for lovers of Nature. We have received a parcel of publications from this body 
which contains the Rev. j. G. Wood’s The Brook and its Banks, and Dr. W. T. 
Greene’s Birds in my Carden, already referred to in Nature Notes ((890, p. 
60), and three others, two of which we notice elsewhere. In The Honey Bee, its 
Nature, Houses, and Products, Mr. W. H. Harris gives an excellent account of 
this most interesting insect, beginning with an historic sketch, in which the bee is 
traced in the Holy Scriptures, the Koran, and the Vedas, and through the 
classics to Shakespeare ; then going through its natural history, with chapters 
on bee-keeping, anti ending with a chapter on bees in relation to flowers, a 
somewhat inadequate account of the superstitions connected with bees, and a 
thoroughly practical statement of the financial profits of bee-keeping. The 
volume is carefully compiled, and well printed and illustrated. Its price is 5s. 
A Cyclofccdia of Nature Teachings, with an Introduction by Hugh Macmillan, 
LL.D. (Elliot Stock, 1892, 8vo, jrp. xvi., 552.) This is a compact work, well 
printed in double columns, containing numerous quotations from well-known 
authors, and more numerous ones from writers whose names are less familiar to us, 
and with whom, judging from these extracts, we have no wish to become better 
acquainted. Among the well-known writers whom we are glad to encounter, even 
in fragments, may be named Ruskin, Carlyle and Jefferies ; but there are others, 
such as H. W. Beecher, whose absence would be an advantage. Dr. Macmillan 
himself has contributed no small share, especially if we are to hold him responsible 
for the anonymous matter, and for the terribly didactic headings to the extracts. 
The heading, “The Woodruff (a Vernal Grass),” shows that the editor does not 
know our common wild flowers ; he apparently accepts as accurate (see pp. 179, 245) 
the exploded myth as to the growth of wheat from Egyptian tombs ; and there are 
numerous misprints in the Latin names quoted. According to the Rev. James 
Neil, M.A., the Purple Orchis, by its mode of increase, is “ steadily travelling to 
the bright home of this family of flowers in the tropics,” as the “new bulb, or 
tubercule,” is “ always on the side towards the south.” Mr. Ward Beecher asks, 
“ What do the flowers say to the night ? They wave their bells and exhale their 
choicest odours, as if they would bribe it to bestow upon them some new charm.” 
Now this is sheer unmitigated nonsense, and there is a great deal more of the same 
kind in this queer collection of scraps. 
Erom the same publisher we have a fourth edition of Mr. H. W. S. Worsley- 
Benison’s /b/ry/a/rrf, which contains “rambles by woodland, meadow, 
stream and shore.” The fact that three editions have been exhausted shows that 
this book has been well received, but it is in no way better, although it is (save for 
one chapter) no worse, than the majority of the large class to which it belongs. 
Those who like their natural history interspersed with pious, if somewhat obvious, 
reflections, will enjoy this little volume. “ The House-fly’s .^tory ” — the chapter 
referred to above, in which the insect referred to quotes “Mr. Linnaeus, ” and 
various poets, and discourses playfully as to its history and habits — is interesting as 
an example of the rubbish it is possible to write under the pretext of advancing the 
study of Nature. This should certainly be omitted from future editions. 
BOOKS FOR YOUNG SELBORNIANS. 
The Last of the Giant Killers, or the Exploits of Sir Jack of Danby Dale, by 
the Rev. J. C. Atkinson, D.C.L. (Macmillan & Co., 4s. 6d.). Dr. Atkinson, in 
a kind note which we have received from him regarding our review of his Moorland 
Parish (p. 14), says that he asked one of his oldest parishioners whether he had 
read The Last of the Giant Killers. “ Ay,” he said, “right through, and many 
parts twice over, ay, and a lot three times.” The young Selbornians who were 
fortunate enough to receive the book as a Christmas box will probably give a 
