236 
NATURE NOTES. 
I will conclude this rather long paper with one of the native 
aphorisms : — “ Bees for peace and wasps for war, but we are 
lovers of peace.” 
J. F. A. IMcNair. 
BOOKS FOR CHRISTMAS. 
Not specially adapted, it may be said, for the bright time which, as the old 
carol says, “comes but once a year,” are the volumes which we have to notice, 
and yet their mention now, even if it be brief, is likely to be more useful than at 
any other period, for “ Christmas boxes ’’have not yet ceased out of the land, and 
Selbornians are at least as likely as other folk to remember their friends at the 
festive season. Wherefore, without further preface, we will turn to our shelves, 
and take down the volumes that await — and in some cases have awaited far too 
long — our notice. 
Here is another issue — the fourth — of Mr. Robinson’s beautiful work on The 
Wild Garden (Murray, 12s. 6d.). Now a new edition of Mr. Robinson’s books is 
White Japanese Ane.mone. 
no formal repetition of what has already been welcomed by the public. A good 
novel cannot be improved, and runs through its thousands unaltered ; but Mr. 
Robinson’s works, excellent to begin with, steadily advance towards perfection. 
The last Wild Garden, for example, published somewhere about ten years ago, 
contained 175 pages; the present issue numbers over 300. Not only have the 
illustrations — and every one who knows any of Mr. Robinson’s books knows how- 
beautiful these are — been largely increased, but wood engravings have supplanted 
the few “ process-blocks” which appeared in the last edition, and we are led to 
anticipate further improvements in future issues. 
