for the use of their poems both in this and in a companion-volume on the subject of Plant-life, which is to appear a little later. So while the latter will be about flowers on our Earth, this one is about more flaming blossoms in the Garden of the Skies. As wrote Erasmus Wilson, long ago— "Flowers of the sky; ye too to age must yield, Frail as your silken sisters of the field." In both books I have given quotations, not only from modern poets, but from many of bygone generations. It is always interesting to note the manner in which great scientific truths are received by widelydiffering minds, gifted with poetic insight. Perhaps not least so with writers of a past age, when that which was known, alike of life on our small world and of conditions in the great Universe, could hardly be compared with what is known to us now. AGNES GIBERNE. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS "If the Sun came as near as the Moon...!" Coloured Frontispiece PAGE The Earth and Mars when at their nearest positions Portion of Moon, North Pole to Agrippa Comparative sizes of the Sun as seen from the various Planets 59 Minor Planets between Mars and Jupiter Facing 67 85 87 Jupiter to Neptune 88 98 Orbit of Comet, which wanders off never to return 112 Cluster M. 13, Herculis, April 25, 1901 Great Nebula in Orion, Oct. 19, 1901 Spiral Nebula M. 64 Comae Berenicis, May 5-8, 1910 |