March 22.—Now that the spring is at its best, books about Nature again attract our attention. The charm of these is particularly felt when some unavoidable circumstance—pressure of office <duty or an unexpected illness, for example—prevents our going into the country. Personally on such occasions I am fond of reading the works of such writers as W. H. Hudson and Richard Jefferies, who appeal to the mind through their ability to convey their personal feelings in such an intimate way that the reader feels as though wandering with the author through woods and fields, or wherever the latter happens to take him. In addition to these some Chinese books deserve notice: specially the "Notes on Gardening" by Li Lih-oong of the Ching Dynasty, and "Poems" by Tao Yuan-ming, famous for their descriptions of rural beauty. Essays on individual flowers and plants, notably the bamboo, orchid and chrysanthemum, may oe found in the complete works of other distinguished Chinese writers: these ard usually written in a charming style, and with a thorough knowledge of the thing described, so that when reading of a certain flower, one could almost smell its fragrance. "Chun Fang Pu," or "A Record of Fragrant Things," a book written by Wang Ziang-tsing of the Ming Dynasty and later enlarged under the auspices of the Emperor Kang Hsi, contains much interesting information en vegetables, grasses, flowers, fruit and timber trees, fishes and cranes, and kindred subjects; but being mainly technical in character, it is apt to be neglected by the ordinary reader. On the whole; however, it must be admitted that as far as books on Nature are concerned, our preference is undoubtedly for the English authors, whose writings are often the result of years of i observation, and consequently are of permanent interest, I can still recall very vividly my impressions on reading Hudson's "A Travel-Jer in Little Things" long ago in Shaoshing when I was laid up with typhus for nearly five weeks. It was in the middle of March, with everything outside my house looking as fresh as the spring; and as I was feeling very impatient, I amused myself with this book alone during my convalescence. Indeed, such was the charm which it exercised over my mind that the very names of the places mentioned in its pages sounded sweetly in my mental ear. It was at that time that I began to read books about Nature with real -enthusiasm.—csw.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.