THE WAYFARING TREE
(1) Nature Studies of a Boy Naturalist. By C. T. Astley Maberley. Illustrated. (Fisher Unwin. 9s.) (2) A Practical Guide to Nature Study. By J. H. Crabtree, . F.R.P.S. Illustrated. (Jarrolds. 7s. 6d. net.) (3) Plants and Men. F. 0. Bower, Sc.D., LL.D., F.A.S. Illustrated. (Macmillan. 14s. net.)
WHAT a tree it is—the wayfaring tree!! Not the wild gt. wider rose, which has. been honoured by this charming name because it sets its round creamy-white bosses of flowers along many hedge-rows, where grows also the "travellers' joy." Not that tree, but the mystic tree which, like those of ancient fame, under whose boughs an army, horse and man, could rest, spreads its arms wide as the sky. It is rooted in the land beyond the horizon. Its branches, rosed with dawn and raddled with night, spread afar over Africa, to the lost lands of the snows, to China, to the seas in the South. They lace the round world with magical shadows, and finger the steep, dark mountains. If you have heard the sound of the Wayfaring Tree, harping like a great cedar, you will have a hunger for the beyond ; you will want to put your hat on your head and your shoes on your feet and slip out of the house in the dawn and go by foot or horse or ship wherever its song leads you. It is this tree that the bees hear when they swarm. It is this that lures the caravan across the desert and all migratory birds and beasts to other places—to the new places, the adventurous and sweet places. It is a freemasonry as huge as the world, this freemasonry of the 'Wayfaring Tree. Very few have failed to share in it, Trom the top-heavy toddler who has to be deterred from lonely exploration by a board across the door, to the veteran whose life has been full of Zest and adventure and who greets death with the joyous curiosity of a bird launching itself across the sea. In that mood the only place that can hold us is the other place ; the only book that can charm us is a book with distapce in it.- And as, in June, all the world is filled with the " desire of distances," the books mentioned here should be popular. I choose first Nature Studies of -a Boy Naturalist (I) because of its youthful Nan, its sincerity and simplicity, its spontaneous manner, and its beautiful pen-and-ink drawings. -It is very remarkable that anyone so young should not only have acquired such a great deal of knowledge from personal observation,- but should • be able to write of it with ease and without the didactic touch from which the very young writer usually suffers. That he Can also dra'w from-the wild model itself, and get his pictures like life, is a thing which marks him as one of the very gifted people. His pictures of the hawk and falcon tribe and of fawns are especially good. His opening sentence, too, is instinct with the rear spirit of the wild. How this book would have delighted Jefferies and Hudson !' And what a pleasure it is to see, by the preface, that it has delighted at least one great living naturalist—Edward Step. In A Practical Guide to Nature Study (2) the far country is the one which lies within and beyond our own meadow, spinney or pond. The author -says : " Where should he go to find the • lapwing, the long- tailed tit, the dipper or the oyster-catcher ? " , In which sen- tence he proves himself a member of our freemasonry. He knows, too, where the grey snake is at home, and how to take a portrait of the green-cup moss. His style is plain, and he is mainly concerned with the practical aspect of things. He can tell you the dental formula of a univalve ; press a wild flower so that it keeps its colour ; or bottle a tadpole. The plates are clear and good and help us towards what the author well describes as a unique view of Nature's secrets." This inte- resting book deals with Nature apart from man. Mr. Bower's book (3) deals with it in conjunction with man. The world's plants and their uses to humanity is a big subject, and one -which Mr. Bower handles with brilliant success. From the humble potato to the splendid cactus ; from Kentish pine- woods to bamboo groves in Ceylon, his illustrations range, and there is one of lovely seaplants under the water. The scope of the book, the immense stores of its knowledge, the brilliance and clearness of its style, recall Fabre. From the leaf he works up to the plant-body generally, to ..woods, fields, gardens, orchards, fungi, bacteria, ending with two excellent chapters on man's dependence' and influence on vegetation.
Mr. Bower is already well known as one of our dis- tinguished botanists, and this book will certainly add much to his fame. _hound About the' Sussex Downs (4) has not only a picture of black oxen at work, but of a dewpond ! The delight of these is also in the letterpress,, except when it treats of the horrid lore of " sport." But this part of the book can be regarded as negligible, and you can then share the author's real and happily expressed pleasure in the downs and the blue sky, small birds, trees, untrodden ways 'and the tribes of the flowers. Some of these, by the way, mentioned in the author's calender, seem to have been found at surprising dates. January 1st is so early for Shepherd's Purse, and April 28th so late for Mercury. But Sussex probably arranges its floral clock differently from Shropshire. There is a charming description of " going to the hill " on page 189 ; the author is especially happy in this vein, and we should all, I am sure, like more of it—a book full of these delights and free of the trail of sport. In Moorland Mysteries(5) we go to wilder scenes.
The Manner of their treatment is reminiscent of Mitford or of the present-day books of Lady Catherine Gaskeil. Hwi an stories are woven into the landscape in 'a' reisnre. ly, naïve manner, with humour and a sense of pathos. Oriel-likes‘to think of the authoress and her man safe after the horrors of the War, living their happy life on the little Devonian farm. Incidentally, the writer reveals a charming personailly—that of a woman who really knOWs how to be a man'I'lielp-meet," and whois so wrapped up in this self-chosen career ('and what a magnificent career, given the man to fit the part of "-Boss " !) that she has no time to think of herself at all. My last book (6)
deals with human habitations and not with the outdoor world ; but, as it is an account of a wayfaring to Shakespeare's town by one who has a great knowledge of and reverence for ancient and beautiful things, it is in place here. You can hear how Roger Paget was Master of the Guild long and long ago, and how " the Sisteren " give twopence a year for the cherish- ing of brotherly love, and were, further, obliged to pay 'a fine of one halfpenny if they quarrelled " after the bell has sounded ! '-' And many other pleasant things you may hear to bring a tear or a smile or to fire the imagination. For facts, tenderly treated, are as good a food for the soul as for the mind,
and Mr. Forrest is well fitted to gatherr-frorri thin' (to use his own words) " the glamour , of. mystery, and romance which time alone imparts,", for he has not only enthusiasm but also
he really knows his subject.. ,
MARY WEBS (Mas. -IL L.:-WEBt).
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