Wayside and Woodland Blossoms. By Edward Step. Second Series. (F.
Warne and Co.)—Mr. Step need not have made any apology for issuing a second series of his Wayside and Woodland Blossoms. It is justification enough that out of seventeen hundred flowering plants and ferns indigenous to the British Isles four hundred only were described in the first series. This large remainder, in which there were many important kinds—we may mention the columbine and the fritillary—could not properly be neglected. And, as Mr. Step ingeniously remarks, the rambler will want a second volume to balance the first. We are quite sure that the new book will be as acceptable as was the first, with the clear descriptions in the text and the delicately coloured illustrations. Few people who have not specially followed up the subject are aware how many are the various plants that may be. found within a small compass. The writer of this notice has known of more than seventy being discovered in a single field of about seven acres. The search, too, was made rather late in the year, when some kinds had become undistinguishable. If it had been carefully watched for the whole year the catalogue of plants would have been increased. The- worse the land, we may remark, the better hunting-ground it affords.—We get another very useful little volume from Mr. Step, By the Deep Sea (Jerrold and Sons), described as "a. Popular Introduction to the Wild Life of the British Shores." The sea, as Mr. Step well remarks, is continually giving us new lamps for old. It is "mainly enabled to do this by reason of its immensity and the enormous variety of its population, each able to turn some portion of our rubbish to account." It is just the fringe of this marvellously rich and varied life that the explorer of the shore is able to touch. But the fringe is very rich and abundant in specimens. Mr. Step teaches his readers how to search for and how to appreciate the marvels that they will find. Between his "Wayside Blossoms" and his By the Deep Sea the
student of Nature, whether on the land or by the sea, is well provided for.
Previous page
