174 
NATURE NOTES. 
WAYSIDE AND WOODLAND BLOSSOMS. 
It is just a year since we printed * a notice of the handy little volume issued 
by Mr. Edward Step under the above title ; and we now have before us a second 
series, t which the favourable reception of the first has induced the author to 
publish. We think he has done wisely in continuing his work, for the new 
volume possesses all the good points which we pointed out in our notice of the 
first series. 
We cannot, however, say that we observe in this new volume any improve- 
ment upon its predecessor. Certain incongruities, e.g., the introduction of 
foreign trees and of ferns in a work supposed to be limited to “British Wild 
Flowers,” upon which we commented, in our former notice, are repeated in the 
present book; and the time-honoured criticism, “the author would have done 
better if he had taken more pains ” must be held to apply. He would then have 
avoided such awkward phrases as “What the wild roses and the brambles are 
to the ‘ splitter ’ and species-monger, so, in a minor degree, are the aquatic species 
of Ranunculus.” We doubt whether he would have been content with his figure 
of Ranunculus trichophyllus as a representation of that species, whose name, by 
the way, he twice mis-spells. Mr. Step would, we think, do well to leave 
critical plants out of his consideration, for it is clear he is not au courant with 
recent work upon them ; the student of brambles would smile at the advice, 
“ should any of our readers wish to become bramble specialists, we do not think 
they will find a better guide than Mr. Baker’s arrangement,”— f.<r., that in the 
Student’s Flora, where he “reduces these to four species.” Scientific botanists 
are not likely to need guidance from Mr. Step, but, if he finds it necessary to 
allude to critical plants, it is desirable he should direct his readers to the best 
sources of information concerning them. 
As before, the observations bearing upon fertilisation are carefully summarized 
from good authorities, and in matters of this kind Mr. Step is usually an infinitely 
safer guide than Mr. Grant Allen, although the latter has a more attractive style. 
But an ab.sence of imagination has certain drawbacks. Mr. Step quotes — or 
rather misquotes — Gray’s well-known lines about the flowers “born to blush 
unseen,” and proceeds to moralize upon them in a manner worthy of the tradi- 
tional Scotchman. “ Were he now living, Gray would almost certainly re-write 
or expunge these lines, for it is now clear that the tastes of the nectar-seeking, 
pollen-carrying insects have had greater weight in the evolution of the flower than 
had man’s resthetic sense. Further, the fragrance of the deseit flower we now 
know to be prima facie evidence that insects also exist in the desert ; and, should 
the appropriate insect come to the flower and taste of its nectar, we know that 
the fragrance has not been wasted, though no human foot ever passed that way ” ; 
and so on. 
Mr. Step is not proof against the temptation to invent explanations of popular 
names, and even, as we showed in our former notice, to dogmatize concerning 
them. But he should at least consult some standard work before writing such 
nonsense as this about Ploughman’s Spikenard : “ As [true spikenard] had to be 
imported from India it was expensive to buy, therefore ploughmen and other poor 
])ersons had to be content with the costless substitute. Inula Conyza. Hence the 
folk-name for this common biennial.” This suggestion would throw a new light 
upon the habits of ploughmen, but, unfortunately, the name is an invention of 
Gerard’s, and has no claim to be considered a “ folk-name.” Still more alarming 
is the insinuation that Atropa Belladonna used to be grown in gardens “for use in 
that branch of ‘ domestic medicine ’ which concerned itself with the mixing of 
potions to quiet troublesome friends.” They did queer things in the Middle 
.\gcs, no doubt ; but we hardly think this notion of keeping poison constantly at 
hand for the benefit of “ friends ” was generally entertained by them. 
Many of the coloured figures are good, and most are passable, though here 
and there we find one, such as that of the furze, which is in no way satisfactory. 
It would be well to introduce details of floral structure, which could easily be 
<lone without interfering with the figures as they now stand. 
* Na'I'Uiuc Notks, 1895, p. 131. 
+ I''. Warne & Co., price 7s. 6d. 
