WITH CAMERA AND RUCKSACK.* WE feel sure that the first
conception of this book came to Mr. Malby in a delightful way. Instead of a botanical primer or a vague book of travel, he thought, this shall be a book where flowers and scenery are inseparable ; where your eyes shall be swiftly lowered from the sharp outline of the snow- mountain against the sky to the tiny blossom (with a long Latin name, nevertheless) on the path at your feet. Here shall be food for all—for the tourist, for the photographer, above all for the botanist. And his illustrations are good beyond all praise, whether in colour or in black and white, of gentians or of the Matterhorn. So Mr. Malby must be forgiven if his letterpress fails to thrill us. That he himself was thrilled is evidenced by his detailed account of the journey from Charing Cross to Basle; of those long, disagreeable hours which must be faced, when, to the average traveller, the world seems formed of dust and heat, bounded by a rough and rolling ocean, and peopled by customs officers innumerable.
Who can help admiring a man who, on reaching Meyringen, via Ostend, finds time to notice, even before entering his hotel, that "a particularly fine display of blue iris, round the
margin of a crystal pool, provided a delightful splash of colour, whilst the great stone portico was draped with the rampant growth of Aris tolochia sipho, or 'Dutchman's Pipe" ?
Indeed, much of the work on flowers seems admirable, and the careful photographic studies of them, made often on rough ground, at an angle of thirty degrees, amid incredible difficulties, are full of interest even to the uninitiated eye ; but the writer either failed to find, or considers beneath his notice, the masses of white edelweiss that grow along the banks of the Trift valley at Zermatt.
With the same zeal that has often driven him to a whole day's tramp in search of one tiny species, he has caused the wilderness to blossom like the rose in one of the London suburbs, by making for himself a garden where be may re-discover his Alpine finds; and his book is full of good
advice to those who struggle with " rock-gardens " in their sooty backyards, and full of ambitious schemes for the cultivation of Swiss flowers in English soil.
It would have been kind of Mr. Malby to date his holidays ; for, with the best will in the world, and with the greatest enthusiasm for the scenery, what tourist could now succeed, at the top of the Corner Grat in July, in ignoring the multitude of trippers and restaurants, and in finding not even a drink of water ?
• With Camera and Rficksack in the Oberland and Valais. By Reginald A. Malby, F.R.P.S., F.E.14.S. With over 70 photographic studies by the author in colour, photogravure, and half-tone. London : Ileadley Bros. [108. 6d. net.]
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