196 
Review: Botany for Young People. 
hv the preceding sections and there is just enough information 
and suggestion to stimulate interest along the best lines. 
Of fault finding, we have extraordinarily little to do. The book 
is written in a bright colloquial style, for the most part pleasant and 
easy, hut the English is not always beyond reproach, and some of 
the sentences are very clumsy. A little more care in proof 
correcting would have removed this blemish. 
We do not agree with the author that the microscope should 
be wholly excluded from the work of children. It is obviously true 
that a detailed course of histology is quite out of place, but it is 
most desirable that the young student should learn the main facts 
about cells from personal observation, and the peep into this new 
world if rightly subordinated to the whole work, is in itself a 
fascinating experience, justifiable on all grounds. Craven fear of 
the microscope is as weak as slavish devotion to it. 
The illustrations consist of a number of line drawings, mostly 
adequate and good, done specially by the author for this book, and 
some well chosen half-tone blocks of “ plants at home,” two 
or three of which are admirable. Fig. 148 we imagine, represents 
Salicornin herbacea. It is better to use the ordinary English name 
of this plant—Glasswort, rather than “Marsh Samphire,” to avoid 
confusion with the Samphire (Crithmum marithmun), quite a 
different plant, with functional leaves, and characteristically growing 
in rock clefts, above high tide-mark. 
The book is very well got up, has large clear type and a pretty 
and useful green cover. It cannot fail to be helpful even to the 
good modern school teacher, and we cordially wish it a large 
circulation. 
We have received a little paper-covered book called “Toad¬ 
stools at Home,” by Mr. Somerville Hastings. It is one of “ Gowan’s 
Nature Books” and costs sixpence. The book consists of sixty 
excellent half-tone reproductions of photographs of British Agarics 
and some others of the larger Fungi, with a few pages of information 
as to what mushrooms and toadstools are and short descriptions of 
the species figured. The photographs can scarcely be praised too 
highly and though, of course, representations of these plants 
necessarily lose a great deal from the absence of colour, the pictures 
will in most cases suffice for recognition of the different kinds. The 
letterpress is attractively written, though the print is very small. 
R. Madley, Printer, 151, Whitfield Street, Fitzroy Square, W. 
