By T. F. Thistleton Dyer. D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 338. As a popular work upon an attractive subject, this handsome volume is well made, but as a scientific treatise upon an important branch of learning, it has little value. It is a compilation from several comparatively recent issues, particularly in some parts it would seem, from Britten and Holland's "Dictionary of English Plant Names." The folk-lore of plants possesses deep value wholly aside from the curiosity and popular interest which attach to it. The study of folklore is now a promising field in which to glean much of the beginnings of civilization and to trace the progress of culture. The present volume, which may be considered a popular epitome of the most interesting phases of the subject as related to plants, is interesting reading, direct in its style, and broad in its conceptions. The chapters discuss such entertaining topics as plant life - meaning, rather, the spirits ascribed to plants - plant worship, plants in witchcraft, plants in demonology, plants in fairy-lore, love charms, dream-plants, sacred plants, plants in reference to children's rhymes and games, and the like. The reader feels that he is making the acquaintance of sentient beings, rather than plants as we now-a-days meet them.

It is from this old treasure house of superstition and story that many of the customs of the present time have come. Even the Christmas-tree is but a lingering trace of the old Druidical tree-worship of our ancestors. One of the most entertaining of the chapters is that upon the curious yet natural doctrine of signatures, which supposed that the external characters of plants indicated the uses to which the plants are adapted. In colors, red was called hot, and white, cold. For blood diseases, red plant organs and tissues were administered to the patients, and for liver diseases, yellow substances were recommended. Many of our plants preserve this old doctrine in their names. Pul-monaria is the old lung-wort, because its leaves are spotted and lung-like, and Hepatica is an old liver remedy, because its leaves are liver-shaped; and it is only in recent years that the Hepatica has been discarded as a liver medicine. To one who has not read folk-lore and who loves plants, this volume will open a new world of treasure.

The Vacaville Early Fruit District of California. By Ethward f. Wickson. Pp. 149. 12 colored plates. San Francisco. $1.

"Its purpose is to present certain phases of California industrial life with accurate portrayal of the environment amid which they occur and the agencies which minister to their existence. In its purpose, therefore, it claims no originality, for there are many publications which have similar aim. It is in its method chat this work differs from others, and this difference is its most obvious feature: i. e., the employment of color and the camera in a systematic attempt to make an industrial district better known; the effort to present California, not only in form, but in hue and tint; not choosing the picturesque but the industrial scene ; not the features of which the artist joys to present his idealized conception, but the actual; true to topography ; true to results attained by formative industrial processes; true to existence in form and color." And Professor Wickson has done in the main, just what he promised to do. It is refreshing to us of the east, who are over full of pictures of California landscapes, to be assured that actual industrial life is to be represented to us. We are becoming suspicious of anything else.

And we should feel reassured if this volume had devoted the central space in just one of the dozen plates to a view in a California orchard under the trees, rather than to extensive landscapes with the most captivating bits of colorings. To be sure, the corner pieces and side pieces of these plates often represent orchards, but one feels that they are only incidental to the gorgeous landscapes. We doubt if a horticulturist took all the pictures for the plates. But the text suits us better, although the tendency to make much of large yields and prices smacks of the regulation brochures from our golden coast. The pages are packed with information concerning the fruitgrowing interests of the wonderful Vacaville valley, and many of the minor views in the plates possess great value in presenting methods in California orchards. The Vacaville district lies between San Francisco and Sacramento. It is one of the earliest and best of all the fruitgrowing valleys of California. It early attracted attention as a vegetable district, and still holds supremacy in this direction. The shipments of vegetables have increased from 7,653,457 pounds in 1881, to 20,001,976 pounds in 1887. Part II is the more acceptable portion of the volume to the person seeking for explicit information.

Here the author cuts loose from the plates and presents direct information concerning the growing of fruits and vegetables. Fruits of many kinds are grown in this favored valley. The following figures represent the approximate percentages of each: Peaches, 30 per cent.; grapes, 20; apricots, 19; pears, 10; plums and prunes, 10; cherries, 6; figs, 1; nectarines, 1; various others, 2 per cent. The products are largely shipped , east. Good tables are given showing the actual yields of orchards and vineyards, the dates of fruit shipments by many growers in many years, the favorite varieties of fruits for canning and drying, and a chapter is added upon the flora of the Vacaville district. The plates in this volume are the same as in the "California Views." which we noticed last month.

Folk-Lore of Plants.

The Vacaville Fruit District.