93 
REVIEWS AND EXCHANGES. 
My Nature Notebook. By E. Kay Robinson. Isbister and Co. Price 2s. 6d. 
It is undoubtedly true, as Mr. Robinson says in the Preface to this interesting 
little record of a year of his life in the country, reprinted from the Daily Graphic, 
that “ in every week all kinds of things happen in Nature.” It was therefore a 
happy thought of his to set down each week’s happenings ; and living as he does 
in the country, he has thus been able to impart a freshness to his work such as 
no mere London casual visitor could hope to attain, a freshness too which he 
might have himself lost had he waited to compare one year with another, or to 
strike a judicial average as to Nature’s doings. The brief but pithy notes, which it 
is perhaps unnecessary to say are thoroughly Selbornian in sympathy, are mainly 
ornithological, and the writer is not quite so much at home when he deals with plant- 
life. He seems to mistake the young fruits of the elm for flowers, and falls into 
the common mistake of considering the caulescent primrose as an oxlip or as a 
hybrid with the cowslip. It was, moreover, in the purple loosestrife, and not, 
as stated on p. 64, in the primrose, that Darwin described three types of flower, 
whilst if botanists had no more difficult distinction to draw' than that between 
primrose and cowslip, their labours would be a good deal easier than they are. 
The book is well printed and portable, and has some blank pages for notes at the 
end — and a good index. 
Nature and Naturalists. By the Rev. W. Johnson, F.L.S. H. R. Allenson. 
Price 5s. net. 
There is much that is refreshingly original about this volume. We do not 
care for the quarto form of the volume, as the illustrations, though some of them 
well reflect the barren northern land of its birth, are neither numerous enough nor 
good enough to make it a “table” book, whilst its literary matter is certainly 
good enough for a better fate. The author is a Teesdale botanist, and more 
especially a lichenologist ; and if he is perhaps a little too Kernerian in his 
general botany he is perfectly sane, lucid and stimulating when writing of his 
favourite group. The second half of the work consists of admirable little bio- 
graphical sketches of Ray, Linne, White, Waterton, Kingsley, Thomas Edward, 
Gosse, William Mudd, J. G. Wood and Robertson of Cumbrae. 
The Water-Babies. By Charles Kingsley. Illustrated by Linley Sambourne, 
Macmillan and Co. (Illustrated Pocket Classics). Price 2 S. net. 
We have been for some years in the enjoyment of two editions of the “ Water- 
Babies,” so that we can, as disposed, revel in the ethereal daintiness of Sir Noel 
Paton, or in the more rugged humour of Mr. Sambourne. The text is, of course, 
in either case, a perennial fount of delight. This new and dainty little edition, 
with its 100 illustrations, is remarkably cheap at 2S. ; but for so treasured a 
classic we would recommend all who can to acquire the limp leather issue at 3s. 
The Dahlia : its History and Cultivation. By Richard Dean, Robert Fife, John 
Ballantyne, Stephen Jones, William Cuthbertson, and Leonard Barron. 
Illustrated. Macmillan and Co. Price is. 
This miniature monograph, with its imposing array of authors, gives in the 
compass of 120 pages a very full account of this popular group of garden flowers. 
The history, botany, propagation, cultivation and exhibition of the dahlia are 
each in turn treated by a leading horticultural authority. 
Field-path Rambles: Series XXIV., comprising Routes between Whitstable, 
Herne Bay and Canterbury. By Walker Miles. With 17 illustrations. R. E. 
Taylor and Son. Price 6d. net. 
W r e have only one serious fault to find with Mr. Walker Miles’s ramble books 
and that is that there are not enough oi them. They are almost confined to the 
home counties, and have not yet covered the whole area of these. We long to 
emulate the achievements of the late Mr. Samuel Butler, the author of “ Erewhon,’ 
