29 
REVIEWS AND EXCHANGES. 
Natures Garden: An Aid to Knowledge of oiir Wild Flo'vers and their Insect 
Visitors. Wiih coloured plates and many other illustrations, photographed 
directly from Nature by Henry Trott and A. R. Dugmore, Text by Neltje 
Blanchan, Author of “Bird Neighbours” and “Birds that Hunt and are 
Hunted.” New York, Doubleday, Pagec& Co., 1900. Roy. 8vo, pp. xvi., 415. 
This is not a technical, but a popular work, which will interest English 
botanists, as an introduction to the many beautiful wild flowers of the United 
States and Canada. Instead of a technical botanical arrangement the flowers 
are grouped under transitions of colour, and there are also sections on fragrant 
flowers or leaves, unpleasantly-scented plants, and those conspicuous in fruit. 
The illustrations (coloured and plain) are very nice, but represent plants only. 
Of insects there are none, but a book cannot include everything. 
The notice of each plant includes a short technical description of the flowers, 
stems, leaves, fruit, &c., the preferred habitat, flowering season, and distribu- 
tion ; and this is followed by a chatty dissertation on the history and peculiarities 
of the plant, its folklore, distribution, &c., and especially its mode of fertilisation, 
and attractiveness to insects. Sometimes this is followed by short notices of 
other allied plants. It is interesting to find how many English plants are found 
in North America, either by natural wide distribution or introduced ; and in 
other cases native American plants seem, like some American birds, to have 
had the names of English species, more or less like them, applied to them. 
There is much general information in this book which will be new to many 
readers, though there are several plants respecting which more information 
might well have been given. For instance, under Solomon’s Seal nothing is 
said either of the origin of the name as applied to the plant, or the importance 
of the Seal of Solomon itself in folklore and magic ; and the only medicinal use 
of Indian Hemp mentioned is that of its being used to poison mangy dogs, its 
importance as a narcotic and intoxicant throughout the East being entirely 
overlooked. 
On p. 327 we meet with a very strange error: “Because of the alleged 
healing properties of the genus, Linnteus dedicated it to /Esculapius, of whose 
name Asclepias is a Latinised corruption.” We need hardly say that /Esculapius 
is merely the Latin equivalent of the Greek name Asclepios (or Asclepias). 
But it is a thankless task to pick holes in a book which will delight all lovers 
of Nature. W. F. K. 
Botany: An Elementary Text for Schools. By L. II. Bailey. New York: The 
Macmillan Co. Price 6s. 
Professor Bailey amazes us. Whether he writes on the most technical points 
of horticulture, or on the pure science of botany, whether for the teacher or, as in 
this beautiful text-book, for the taught, he invests his subject with a charm, a 
novelty and an inspiring force which are simply astounding to anyone who has 
had to read many of the scores of botanical text-books that issue from the English 
press. There is at the same time no room for complaint on the score of sketchi- 
ness, incompleteness or rash theorising, whilst no small part of the value of his 
works is the number, excellence and originality of the illustrations. There are 
more than 500 in the work under review. Unfortunately they make the bonk, 
which is sensibly bound in buckram with a neat leather back, very heavy. We 
are not sure that photography has not in some instances been unwisely substituted 
for diagrammatic treatment ; but our main regret is that the author, by having 
drawn his examples from American plants and used none but vernacular names, 
has placed a great difficulty in the way of the ordinary English teacher who might 
like to study this most enlightening book himself, even if he cannot place it in 
the hands of his pupils. Could not an English edition be prepared ? 
Lord Lilford, Thomas Littleton, Fotirth Baron. A Memoir by his Sister, ivith 
an introduction by the Bishop of London. Jllusti-ations by Thorburn and 
others, and a portrait in photogravure. Smith Elder and Co. Price ios.6d. 
A double pathos attaches to this interesting volume. It is the life of an 
ardent and actively-minded naturalist and sportsman who, crippled by gout, was 
