I think this book interesting because it seems to have been printed in England! In the past half-dozen years, the British publishers have been issuing, in each Christmas season, “nature” books illustrated with wood-engravings and with the composition of the text either in Plantin or Times Roman, rich and black to harmonize with the engravings.

Few of our printers use the Plantin or the Times Roman, both of which types make a pleasing harmony with wood-engravings; and so our designers only too often choose Bodoni, which I believe neither harmonizes with, nor complements, a good wood-engraving. Bodoni is sometimes pleasing with wood-cuts, but that is a different story.

In this book, the type and the engravings strike up a fine harmony, the composition is excellent and the printing good, the margins are generous; and I would have argued with my colleagues for the inclusion of this book in our group of “excellent books,” if it were not for the fact that the cover is most unpleasingly nude.