TWO WAYS WITH NATURE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 22, Issue 555, 10 February 1950, Page 15

TWO WAYS WITH NATURE

WILD BEAUTY, Nature in New Zealand in Photographs; Whitcembe and Tombs, Designed and Produced by Leon Studios. NATIVE PLANTS, by Charles Masefield; A. H. and A. W. Reed. Price, 5/4: NEW ZEALAND town-dweller may not know a karaka from a_ broadleaf, though he will know a kowhai in flower or out of flower, and he will know manuka even if he calls it tea-tree. But show him-or show his countryman -a drawing (even a good drawing) of totara and a drawing of matai, and the result will be-at ahy rate, in the cases I tried-a sad ¢onfusion. But show your city visitor to the hills an akeake in January and then take him home and show him a brilliant photograph: in de-tail-he will recognise the net-patterned leaves and will never forget those winged seeds. For memory to serve, detail is essential; and the camera can present the most brilliant, the most life-like, and the most recognisable detail, The Leon Studios in Auckland have now produced a set of superb photographs of plants and flowers to be seen. by the visitor to the merest edges of New Zealand forest, The plants illustrated are mostly, but not all, natives; and all: are briefly and simply described in notes opposite the photographs. Botanical terms are avoided, but an index off botanical names is appended. The co-operation of Miss B. Molesworth, . botanist to the Auckland Museum, has | assured accuracy of description. The cover shows the kowhai in full bloom in very good colour; all other photographs, 30 large plates, are in sepia. It is to be hoped that this very good scheme may \be extended to 4

second volume soon; for there is surely no better way of in- : troducing or making : memorable New Zealand’s trees and plants. A small book in the Nature in New Zealand series sets out to do in blac and white sketches (continued on next page)

BOOKS (continued trom previous parg) with description what Wild Beauty does in photographs, The author, Charles Masefield, has already produced a similar book on native birds. His drawings of te lt oy celmisia and manuka and Pe few more are recognisable and clear enough; and his descriptions are not inaccurate. But his drawings are not all beautiful, and in some cases show simply | tree-I defy anyone to look at his miro, -and go out into the hills and find a miro, never having seen a miro before; the same goes for his totara; his matai, almost all his big trees except rimuwhich is, of course, defiantly recognisable even when, as in my edition of Cockayne and Turner, the plate is printed upside down. Mr. Masefield is _ welcome to spend his time drawing trees if he enjoys doing this; but it seems unjust, at a time when book-publishing is a badly-jammed industry, that craftsmen should have to spend their time producing a book which does the job it sets out to do so inadequately.

J.