The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-06-18

i llN AbAAbN III 3 lGNlNN " ete ~ AhNeAA 80
The Spy by Miss Arabella II. Tucker
of the state normal school:
Field, Forest and Wayside Flowers.
BY Maud Going. The Baker & Taylor
Company, New York.
This is another of the many attrac-
tive books on nature that have APP
peared during the closing decade of the
nineteenth century-appeared in such
numbers as to mark this as a distinct
epoch, wrjch will be known, perhaps,
as the era of the discovery Of nature.
With the impetus given by Thoreau
and Burroughs, we have taken to OBJ
serving the world about us, and it is
poor week that doesn't turn out one or
more nature books.
Most of these are commendable Many
Of them are very goadS and some of the
best are produced by women. One
wonders if the feminine energy that,
two or three generations ago, spent it
self in pieCing log-cabin bed quilts, or
working tides" in elaborate cross
stitch, has not been partly diverted in
to this pleasant and profitable channel.
Perhaps the proportion of women to
men is no larger in this than in any
other department Of bookmaking, but
certainly some of the most readable of
the newer books on plants have been
those written by women. The list in
cludes Margaret Morley's Flowers
and Their Friends" "A Few Familiar
Flowers" seed Babies;" Mrs. William
Starr Dana's According to Season"
How to Know the Wild Flowers"
plants and Their Children" Fanny D.
Berger's "Glimpses at the PlantWOrld;"
Caroline Creevey's "Recreations in
Botany" Flowers of Field, Hill and
Swamp" Misses Miller and Writings
Flowers of the Northern United
States" Alice LOunsberrys "A Guide to
the Wild Flowers" as well as many
others. But it might be wished that
there was little more uniformity in
the signature of some of these writer's.
cording to Season" as Mrs. William
Starr Dana, but in her latest book,
How to Know the Ferns" a companion
volume of her How to Know the Wild
Flowers" she signs herself Frances
Theodore Parsons, and we have to re-
adjust our conception of Mrs. Dana to
the new name.
The present author is another case in
point. A few years ago an interesting
little book called with the Wild Flow
ers," From Pussy Willow to Thistle
down" appeared with the signature of
f. NJ. Harding.
The book under consideration at pres
ent is by the same author, but the name
Maud Going appears on the title page
However the sweetness of the rose
isn't in the name, and Field, Forest
and Wayside Flowers" whoever wrote
it is a book well worth reading and
worth owning.
1t is a well-made and attractively-
hound hn1r thDt makes q Tla9gnnt
preston as one turns it over. Its il
trations are abundant and mostly good.
The author calls it "Untechnical Studies
for Unlearned Lovers Of Nature" and
she has certainly succeeded to a re-
markable degree in avoiding abstruse
technical terms.
Some of the chapters have appeared
in such publications as the Popular
Science Monthly and the New York
Evening Post, and each is complete in
itself. The order of their arrangement
is that of the seasons, rs the table
of contents shows, beginning with
"Crocuses" and ending with In win
ter woods" In the is chapters is set
forth with sufficient accuracy and full
ness and in very agreeable style,
the whole wonderful story of plant
lie. .
The "Crocus" chapter, using the
crocus blossom for a text, describes
the flower organs and their uses, eX-
plains the process of fertilization and
the advantage to the plant of cross
fertilization, and then Classics flowers
according to the devices they employ
to secure fertilization.
The next chapter, on "Dandelions,
not only gives the life history of the
dandelion, with a series of excellent
illustrations of it's fruiting, but makes
clear the structure of all composite
blossoms and shows why the composite
family has attained such an important
position in the plant world. CBut why
/ does the author state so explicitly three
times over that boiled dandelions are
a favorite dish with the Irish? We're
| not dandelion greens eaten in New En-
gland homes long before the Irish came
/ to show US hoWO
. Green leaves at work. explains the
/ process of nutrition; "Lily-kin and
/ rose kin" tells something of the prin-
/ ciples of classification; THE sporting of
! the fern" describes a primitive type
/ Of plant reproduction; and THE seniors
/ of the forest" tells about the evergreen
/ trees.
( The other chapters are all interest
/ ing; there isn't a dull page in the book
The authors sympathy with her sub
/ ject is constantly felt, the human in
/ terest is never lost sight of, and she
! doesn't hesitate to moralize occasional
| ly in a pleasant fashion.
| These are the closing lines of the
| chapter: The sleeping fields: "All
| things have their price, both in the
| spiritual and in the natural world.
/ Without the tOrpOr Of winter the
/ freshness and gladness of spring could
never be. Semi-tropic lands which es-
/ cape the one, miss the other. Only
to lands which have known the long
! i -.
/ ecstacy of the northern spring, Wher
skies growing daily brighter, and earth
/ awakening under them with joy, fore
tell to us the new heavens and the new
( earth, wherein shall dwell righteous.
4 ness"
It is a pity that in so meritorious a
/ work the proofreading should have
been done so carelessly. The book Is
marred by more typographical errors
than any book ought to have, and
! though they are mostly slight. there is
| one on page ia that is laughable.
In the discussion of the various me
/ tamOrphoses of leaves into thorns, ten
/ drills ETC., the author is made to say
/ In the case Of the cactus and other
sUcculent dwellers in thirsty lards
! they (the leaves) are transformed into
pickles." 1t is to be hoped that no un-
! wary reader viii be tempted to try the
! pickles of the cactus.
In what she calls her fOrewOrd," the
| author states that the book is written
especially for people who have not
! time or perhaps inclination to become
/ actual students who yet love to OBJ
! serve the beauties and wonders Of IA
( miliar plant life" Such persons can
not fail to find both profit and enjoy
( ment in the book, and to all such it is
recommended as a delightful vacation
/ comma DfOn.