Current Literature
SPRING FLOWERS OF THE WILD. By Edward Step, F.L.S. (Jarrolds. 5s.)—Hitherto most books about wild flowers have been arranged alphabetically, Black Medick following Bitter Vetch, Goldilocks following Golden Saxifrage and so on in a straightforward but rather unintelligent list which entirely ignored the fact that certain flower communities—of the cornfield, of the forest, of the chalk hills—should naturally be grouped together as they arc found ; this little book therefore predisposes us in its favour at once from the mere fact of its departure from that old way ; in these pages a flower of the beechwood, say the Hairy Violet, is found next to another flower of the beechwood, the Wild Strawberry, and thus each chapter may be said to take the reader for a walk through one certain type of country. This is convenient and delightful, and no better guide could be imagined for the purpose than Professor Step, who not only writes with an intimate knowledge of flowers, but, what is rarer, conveys his know- ledge in a charming way. There is a real fragrance about this little book and we have only one fault to find---it should have been published in January, not in June.
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