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The Training of the Human Plant. By Luther Burbank. In the realm of plant life Mr. Burbank has been so extraordinarily successful in developing new and strange types, that parents, teachers and all interested in the training of the genus homo, the human plant, will turn eagerly to this little volume for new light. Mr. Burbank approaches the subject from the view point of the naturalist and the optimist; but his theories as he would put them in practice, if somewhat extreme, are not revolutionary. He never loses his "horse sense." He has found that a plant's life-long stubbornness is broken simply by blending a new life with it." But the transformation of the type is slow. "In plant cultivation, under normal conditions, from six to ten generations are generally sufficient to fix the descendants of the parent plants in their new ways." So he asserts, "Ten generations of human life should be ample to fix any desired attribute." Our author repeats the adage that to reform a man begin with his grandfather, when that grandfather is a child.

First of all the child should be a healthy animal with normal nerves, splendid digestion and unimpaired lungs. Granted "healthful environmental influences," one can "cultivate in the child and fix there for all its life" any trait, "be it honesty, fairness, purity, lovableness, industry, thrift, what not." At the age of ten he asserts the traits of a child are fixed, and he deplores the custom of sending boys and girls to school at an earlier age than ten.

The Training of the Human Plant is bristling with scientific truth tersely put in new ways, and is very readable. The Century Company. Price, to cents net. A University Text-Book of Botany. By Douglas Houghton Campbell, Ph.D. The author of this volume is professor of botany in the Leland Stanford University, California; and this is the second edition revised and corrected. The book presents in as compact a form as possible an outline of the essentials of modern botany. The word "modern" is a significant one, for the scientific study of this subject has passed through an extraordinary stage of development in the past few years. It is no longer the object of the teacher or the student merely to collect and identify specimens of plants, but rather to investigate plant nature, to trace the sources of energy, to mark the structural resemblances, to follow the cell development, to note conditions of plant life, and the relations of this kind of life to other lives. Then there is the wonderfully interesting field which has been opened up and carried to such a degree of development by investigators like Luther Burbank, whereby new forms of almost infinite beauty and value are originated by cross-fertilization and selection. The very latest methods, facts, discoveries and results are set forth in this voluminous work by this learned author. Advanced students of the subject in universities will find it a compendium of information. Beginners would do well to have it at hand for consultation, guidance and inspiration. There are five hundred and seventy-nine pages and hundreds of illustrations, making the volume one of the most complete yet received upon this fascinating branch of study. Macmillan Company. Price, $4.00.

The Making of English Literature. By William H. Crawshaw. The author declares that it is his main purpose to write a compact, yet broadly suggestive, historical introduction to English literature for use by students and

by general readers. He has pursued this end along somewhat original lines. Mere history has been kept in the background; the spirit of the literature, the essential facts, the great movements and the individual writers are consistently presented to the attention of the reader in their literary aspects. The effort has been made to show clearly the relation of each writer to the general literary movement of his age. Each chapter carries along the history of literature from a preceding to a later age. The volume is divided into six books, the first of which is on Paganism and Christianity, and the last on Democracy and Science. The dates covered are approximately from 449 to 1892. In arrangement the chapters are convenient for consultation by the student. Black-face type in the margin of each page presents the essential features of each paragraph to the eye. There are many illustrations, a literary map of England, and a complete index. D. C. Heath & Co.

The Changed Cross and Other Religious Poems. Compiled by Anson D. F. Randolph. This is the third and enlarged edition of a book of religious poems, which have been restful and comforting to many readers. The collection includes some original poems by Mr. Randolph, and will continue to express the common, human experiences of joy and sorrow which crave expression. It is a suitable volume to send to a friend who is struggling with spiritual experiences and suffering under the common trials of life. G. P. Putnam's Sons.

Grasshopper Land. By Margaret W. Morley. We do not know how we can better introduce this fascinating book to the reader than by quoting in full the foreword of the author, who says: "This book is not for children. It is for their grandfathers and grandmothers who were once boys and girls in the country, and who may be in danger, after all these years, of forgetting about grasshoppers. If the children persist in reading so old a book they must not grumble at the long words, but quietly hunt them up in the dictionary, or else wait until they themselves are grandfathers and grandmothers, when they will understand it all quite easily." All the same, the book really is for children, and they will be immensely interested in following the life history of the insects as it is unfolded both by the text and the illustrations. There is many a touch of humor and many a covert moral that will do no harm either to children or grown folks. McClurg & Co. Price, $1.25.

Plato's Apology and Crito. Edited by Isaac Flagg, Ph.D. This edition presents a carefully edited text with ample explanatory notes at the foot of each page, an introduction, and an index supplementary to the notes. It is an admirable volume for class-room use, containing abundant helps to the student for a comprehensive study of these two great works of Plato. American Book Company. Price, $1.40.

On the Civic Relations. By Henry Holt, A.B., LL.B., LL.D. This book is a third edition of the author's talks on civics; yet there are so many important additions and changes as to make it almost a new work. There is hardly any field in which there has been so rapid a development of interest in the past quarter century, as in that occupied by this volume. The unprecedented growth of our country, the increasing complexity of modern life, the multiplicity of means of travel, bringing the world's population into close touch with each other, have created multitudes of new problems which are persistently demand

ing solution. A field for intellectual activity has thus been opened up, inviting numerous students to enter it. These forces have created new departments in our universities, and have made necessary new courses of study and the publication of text-books and other literature to help and guide the student. The present volume, in a very thorough way, investigates such questions as society's control of the individual; the protection of rights, such as the right to life, liberty, happiness, prosperity, personal property; the subjects of competition, monopoly, trusts, the laws of contract, money, public works, peculiar American municipal difficulties, the state's relation to unfortunate and defective classes, the general problem of education, taxation and many minor problems involved in man's relation to man. These great subjects are treated in the light of modern thought and experience. The book will serve as a helpful guide to the private reader, and will be a boon to classes in high schools and colleges. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Price, $1.75.

Readings in Descriptive and Historical Sociology. By Franklin H. Giddings. These readings offer to students in sociological studies significant examples of the great facts of social evolution, and of their interpretation, and being presented collectively, and in connection with a mere outline of theory, they constitute a fairly complete scheme of elementary readings in descriptive and historical sociology. Dr. Giddings' desire is that these readings shall not be accepted by the teacher as a substitute for inductive research on the part of the student, his own method of using such materials in teaching being to require students to find, analyze and classify similar materials obtained from historical sources, statistical and other official reports, newspapers and current literature. The selections given in this book are thus to become samples and points of comparison, the mind of the student being kept alert to discover essential similarities between facts drawn from widely different sources. Dr. Giddings claims that the outline of social theory which as a thread of text runs through the volume is more complete in scope than anything which he has offered in any previous volume. The work then becomes at once a text-book in sociology and a library of selected information, in one-a most valuable and necessary book for all teachers and students in the subject. The Macmillan Company.

Tenants of the Trees. By Clarence Hawkes. This is a volume of nature stories worthy of a place beside the fascinating and popular works of Thompson-Seton and Long, but unlike those books, it deals not with the deeper and wilder aspects of forest life, but with the common, every-day aspects which every boy and girl who lives in the country may observe and enjoy. The author's aim is to bring the child into closer touch with the life in nature, to quicken his interest so that he will seek the companionship of his shy little neighbors, will open his ears to the song in the thicket, his eyes to the flash of fur or feathers in the tree top, and his heart to all the glad life about him. Nor is the book wholly for children. The older person who reads it will feel his blood thrill with the joy he used to experience as a boy in the country, before the cares and hardships of the world made him callous and unresponsive to the myriad voices of Mother Nature. Technically, the book is beyond criticism. Before each chapter is a little poem setting forth the keynote of the chapter, and many beautiful illustrations, several of them in color, give added beauty and interest. L. C. Page & Co., 1907. Price $1.50.

Text-Book in General Zoology. By Glenn W. Herrick. This is a book suited for use in any secondary school course of Zoology. In it each branch of the animal kingdom is introduced by a familiar and accessible type. After the various forms of the branch have been studied, their characteristics are summed up, their adaptations to environment and their economic significance are discussed, and a clear, concise classification of the group is given. Numerous illustrations and diagrams help the student in understanding the subject. The book should be useful as a guide to private study as well as for class-room work. American Book Company. Price, $1.20.

A Source Book of Greek History. By Fred Morrow Fling, Ph.D. During the past fifteen years the teaching of history has been revolutionized. History is no longer presented as a mere record or catalogue of events; these events are traced back to their sources and interrelated so as to show their bearings on one another. History is shown to be a growth, and not a succession of detached events. History teachers are now united in the belief that the subject should be taught by a use of the sources, either as supplementary reading, or as direct texts, and this book is intended as an aid for such teaching. Passages from the Greek writers giving accounts of events in Greek history are quoted in abundance, and frequent full-page illustrations of works of sculpture and architecture tend to familiarize the student with the great works of the Greek artists. At frequent intervals series of questions are introduced to aid in reviewing and grasping the contents of the chapter. The work should be of great service in creating a true historical atmosphere, developing originality and thought power, and promoting accuracy in historical judgments and inferences, as well as adding to the pleasure of both student and teacher. D. C. Heath & Co. $1.00.

Vancouver's Discovery of Puget Sound. By Edmond S. Meany. The author is professor of history in the University of Washington, and secretary of the Washington University State Historical Society. This volume is an excellent illustration of localized, historical investigation. It would hardly be just to say that it would be of particular interest only to the citizens of the great state of Washington, for our country is one, and the student of history finds no fact too small to be of deep interest, so long as it is an historic fact. A large, richly illustrated volume has been made out of the material discovered by Professor Meany in regard to the great explorer who was especially identified with the Puget Sound region, who recognized the resources of this great land, and made them partially known to the world. There are many portraits scattered through the volume, and a chart made by Vancouver of Puget Sound and the contiguous shores, also charts illustrating voyages of other discoverers, fullpage illustrations of various matters of interest connected with the Pacific Coast. The work is a contribution to the historical and geographical material illustrative of our country's life. The Macmillan Company. Price, $2.50 net.

True and False Democracy. By Nicholas Murray Butler. This little volume contains three addresses delivered by the president of Columbia University: (1) True and False Democracy; (2) Education of Public Opinion; (3) Democracy and Education. They have been brought into book form in the hope that they may bring a clearer understanding of what democracy really means and implies. The first paper defines democracy, and distinguishes that

of the mob, ruled by their lower nature, from the true democracy of the people, guided by their higher selves. The second paper shows the influence of public opinion, and how it may be educated to seek the true democracy; the third shows the necessity of education if the state is to be composed of the kind of citizens who constitute such a democracy. A wide reading of this little book would do much toward a clearer understanding of modern civilization and a solution of some of its problems. The Macmillan Company. Price, $1.00, net.

A very timely number of the American History Leaflets is number thirtysix, The Founding of Jamestown. Percy's Discourse of Virginia. Wingfield's Discourse of Virginia. 1607, 1619. Published by Parker P. Simmons. Price, IO cents.

Outlines of Roman History. By H. F. Pelham, LL.D. Fourth edition revised.

This book is a reprint, with many additions and alterations, of the article "Roman History," which appeared in the last edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. It gives a sketch of the general course of Roman history, which will enable the reader to follow the main lines of movement, and grasp the characteristic features of the different periods. The lion's share of the space, some three fifths of the whole, has been devoted to the period which extends from the tribunate of the elder Gracchus to the fall of Nero (133 B.C. to 69 A.D.), as being the period which is most necessary for a student of Roman history to understand, and the one which is most fully illustrated by the extant ancient literature. The work is carried, however, to the fall of the Western Empire, in 476 A. D. The book is an admirable one for the student who does not desire so exhaustive a work as that of Mommsen, and yet wants a complete and authoritative history. The author has made a careful study of sources, as well as of a large number of nineteenth century writers in French, German and English, and refers constantly to these in the foot notes. Four maps and a complete index are contained in the book. It is a volume which may be highly recommended for use in secondary schools or by private readers. G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1907.

Periodical Notes

"School Reform in Boston," by David Spencer in the July Atlantic Monthly, contains much matter of interest to educators generally.-No more vitally interesting article has appeared in a long time than "Brain and Body," in the July Everybody's. The author, Dr. William Hanna Thomson, a recognized authority, presents what to most of us will be an entirely new conception of the brain, facts of the greatest practical importance in mental training; and he puts it in a simple, easily comprehended form unusual in a scientific writer.-"The Waterways of America," in the August Century, their past, their present, their possibilities, is a big subject, and in view of transportation problems, a timely one, handled by Charles D. Stewart, whose stories, "The Fugitive Blacksmith," and " Partners of Providence," have proved his long and intimate acquaintance with the Mississippi and Missouri.-The June Arena closes Volume Thirty-seven of this standard review with a table of contents that will appeal to men and women who think." The Wand as a Means of Home Exercise," is the title of a valuable article in The Designer for August, by Lorah Pollard, which puts within reach of the reader the possibility of health-giving physical development. "The Divorce Evil" is considered by Cardinal Gibbons, Rev. William C. Doane, Francis L. Patton, D.D., LL.D., in The Delineator for July, August and September.-The Bos ton Medical and Surgical Journal, published by D. C. Heath & Co., has printed in recent numbers the following articles of interest to educators: "The Education of Defectives" [Editorial]; "The Medical Inspection of Schools," by Dr. R. W. Lovett; "Instruction in the Physiology and Hygiene of Sex; Its Practicability, as Demonstrated in Several Public Schools," by Helen C. Putnam, Chairman of the Committee to investigate the teaching of hygiene in public schools, of the American Academy of Medicine; "Medical Aspect of Athletics in Preparatory Schools," by Dr. John P. Blake, together with a number of other articles of equal value.

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