132 
NATURE NOTES. 
A second edition will, we hope, soon be called for, and one 
or two suggestions may be made regarding it. The very brief 
space — little more than four pages — devoted to lichens, mosses 
and fungi, might be more usefully occupied ; one does not 
expect to find these among “Wayside Blossoms,” and the ferns 
and horsetails might disappear, on the same ground. The 
arrangement of the book is governed by “ technical difficulties 
connected with colour-printing and binding,” which is un- 
fortunate ; it is true that the index and a list grouped according 
to the natural orders partly remedy the inconveniences resulting 
from this state of things, but Mr. Step’s attempt to arrange the 
plants “more in seasons ” is not happy, inasmuch as, after we 
have disposed of the cr3'ptogams, we come upon a number of 
descriptions of trees — by no means all native — which appear to 
have been introduced solely for the purpose of using up a 
number of uncoloured figures which the publisher happened to 
have in stock. The paging of this quasi-appendix is erratic. 
Mr. Step’s notes on plant-names are often suggestive, but 
sometimes misleading, and he will do well to consult the 
English Dialect Society’s Dictionary of these before printing 
his second edition. He will then, we hope, abandon the modern 
and unauthorized spelling of “Hair-bell;” for, although it is 
true that “ Hare-bell ” is unexplained, it is the old spelling. 
What Mr. Step means by saying this “ has no chance of reten- 
tion among botanists,” we cannot conjecture ; for “ botanists,” 
using the universal language, call the plant Campanula votundi- 
folia. But to suppose that the popular name refers to “the 
slender hair-like stems ” is to invent a reason and then alter the 
name to suit it. Mr. Step thinks “ John-go-to bed-at-noon ” is 
the longest English plant-name ; but he will find that the pansy 
is called “ Meet-her-i’-th’-entry-kiss-her-i’-th’-buttery ” in North- 
west Lincolnshire. 
As to the plates, most of them are fairly satisfactory ; one 
or two, however, are bad, e.g., the Yellow Iris. But the printing 
in colours has produced some strange results ; who (except 
perhaps Mr. Grant Allen) would have thought that Ground Ivy 
and Ivy-leaved Toadflax were of the same hue ? 
These criticisms are not intended to detract from what has 
already been said as to the usefulness of this little book. In 
it the reader will find much to learn and very little to unlearn, 
and we know no other that can be so unreservedly recom- 
mended to the tyro in British botany. 
]\I. Correvon has aimed at producing for the tourist in the 
mountains of Switzerland, Dauphine, and the Pyrenees, a similar 
volume to that just noticed ; and indeed in size, shape, and 
general get-up, it is a suitable companion to Mr. Step’s book. 
The figures, however, are by no means so good, either in 
design or in colour: some of them, indeed, are very bad — e.g.. 
Azalea procumbens — and by no means likely to help the doubting 
collector. The plan of the book is different : the “ techni- 
