58 
NATURE NOTES. 
“ yewen hedge we should be quite willing to change “Mrs. Sinkins ” into 
Arethusa or Boule de Neige ; we like the fanciful nomenclature by which the 
beautiful trees of the garden become the knights and ladies of King Arthur’s Court 
— Sir Launcelot, and Sir Bedevere, and Morgan-le-faye — though we are sorry that 
there is no room found in this earthly paradise for poor guilty Guinevere. But if 
scientific names are used at all, they ought to be used consistently and spelt cor- 
rectly. “ Phylleria ” for “ Phillyrea “Pavias” for“ Pavia;” “Tropceolum” 
for “ Tropreolum “ chalcedonia ” for “ chalcedonica “ Bromus aspen” for 
“ Bromus asper ” are misprints which surely ought not to appear in a seventh 
edition. “ Daphne pontifia” (the name given for the spurge laurel on p. 133) is 
probably a misprint for “ Daphne pontica but the spurge laurel is really “ Daphne 
Laureola.” “Pyrus Malus ” is the botanical name for the apple. “ Pyrus malus ” 
(p. 123) is merely the Latin for “ a bad pear !” So with many others. Doubtless 
the seventh edition of Days and Hours in a Garden will soon be succeeded by our 
eighth, and then we hope that not even a technical or typographical error will mar 
the pages of so fair a book. 
Science and Scientists, Some Papers on Natural History by the Rev. John 
Gerard, S. J. (Catholic Truth Society) is a book much more adapted to the 
tastes of nature-lovers than its somewhat vague and unattractive title suggests. 
The scientists referred to are those popularisers of science who “ stroll out to the 
fields, or the moors, or the sea-shore, where every object they meet— beast, bird, 
insect, or weed — furnishes them with a text wherewith to enforce the great creed 
formulated by exact science and exact thought concerning the origin of the 
heavens and the earth.” From this habit of imparting information while they 
take their walks abroad, Father Gerard calls them “ Neo-peripatetics,” or modern 
walking sages, and he recognises as head “ walker ” the popular essayist and 
novelist, Mr. Grant Allen, with whom accordingly he determines to enter the lists. 
Now Mr. Grant Allen is quite accustomed to being attacked by scientific 
specialists and learned ecclesiastics ; but being nimble and cunning of fence he 
generally manages to get the best of it, for he can slip beneath their guard and runs 
them through with a gibe or a good story while they are seeking to crush him 
with their ponderous weapons of rigid logic and accurate statement of fact. In 
these wit combats Mr. Grant Allen for the most part continues to secure the 
sympathy of the spectators ; his style, as we all know', is delightful, and above all 
else his easy familiarity ingratiates him with those who have no pretensions to 
technical scientific training. “ Don’t bore yourself with all these dull books and 
dry technicalities in order to see whether my theories are correct, ” says he to his 
readers, “ let us go out into the fields and pluck a buttercup, or eat a wild straw- 
berry, or look at an arum, or watch a donkey browsing on the common. And the 
“ general reader,” leaving the dull technical treatises on the shelf, arises gladly, 
accepts the genial invitation and listens eagerly, while the “ walking sage ” ex- 
plains to him all about the buttercup, and the arum, and the donkey. And very 
nice w'alks they are, too, and very much we enjoy them, readily and unquestion- 
ingly we accept the information which our kind guide gives us about the juicy 
strawberry, who competes with his “ chaffy ” brethren in the race of life, or about 
the wicked “ lobster-pot-like ” Arum (the original criminal “ who killed Cock 
Robin,” not with bow and arrow, but basely by poison), and about the aristo- 
cratic donkey whose high position irreverent men rudely refuse to recognise, nor 
will they pay the deference they ought to one of Nature’s “ unfortunate noble- 
men.” 
But Father Gerard refuses to be put on the shelf while our peripatetic tutor is 
giving us all this valuable and amusing information. “ I will put on my hat and 
come too,” says he, “together we will pluck our buttercup and eat our strawberry 
and watch, & c., &c.” The result of these joint expeditions may be found in the 
pleasant little volume before us. In it the ambulatory method is recognised as the 
right one ; but is turned against its originator with considerable skill. Mr. Grant 
Allen is in a fashion, hoist with his own petard, and finds he has a very different 
anatagonist to deal with from those ponderous Dryasdusts who think it wise to 
conduct a guerilla warfare with an eighty-one ton gun. We learn that we 
have been a little too hasty, perhaps, in accepting the instruction we had received in 
our former rambles, that we have often allowed our teacher to do all the looking 
at nature for us instead of looking ourselves ; that we sometimes, under the in- 
fluence of our accomplished guide, have seen things, apparently of considerable 
