THE PLANT WORLD 57 



process based on scientific principles, and has been practiced in some 

 countries from time immemorial. The requisites for caprification as now 

 practiced in California are genuine Smyrna fig trees, two or three varie- 

 ties of caprifig trees, and colonies of Blastophaga grossorum or fig wasps 

 occupying the caprifigs. 



The method of caprification, pollination, different types of figs, and 

 insects are described, and the life history of the caprifig wasp is given. 



The bulletin also treats of climatic conditions, propagation, pruning, 

 irrigation, diseases, drying, curing, packing, shipping, chemical analysis, 

 statistics, and production of the fig. It concludes with chapters on 

 household recipes, bibliography of figs and tables of temperature, pre- 

 cipitation and humidity in the principal fig regions. 



It contains a very complete catalogue of the many varieties of figs, 

 a frontispiece, 15 plates, and 93 text figures. 



Country Life in America for February is an enlarged number of 

 this beautiful magazine of the world out-of-doors, representing the new 

 expansion of American life to the country. " In Garb of White," the 

 frontispiece, is a remarkable picture of a New England woods road in 

 winter. Among the leading features are "Skibo Castle," the summer 

 home of Andrew Carnegie in the Scottish Highlands ; " A Sniff at Old 

 Gardens," by J. P. Mowbray, who treats of the vestiges of a past home 

 life on the old Hudson River manors. Other articles and superb pictures 

 touch upon every side of country life. " The Trees," is a large plate of 

 rare beauty covering the two central pages of the large magazine. Of 

 gardens and practical garden-making there is " An Experience with the 

 Soil," in which a suburbanite tells of years of enthusiastic work in 

 growing a wild garden of some eighty kinds of flowers, shrubs, and 

 aquatic plants ; and there are also articles on the construction and care 

 of the hot-bed, with suggestions for starting vegetables and flowers. A 

 series of photographs is devoted to " The Abandoned Farm Country," 

 where, amid old friends — the marigold, hollyhock and climbing rose — 

 may be found pleasant summer homes, modest, but quite as much the 

 aim of this successful magazine as the ideal country seats. 



AivL teachers of botany in secondary schools, as well as those in 

 higher institutions, will find much of interest and usefulness in Class 

 Bulletin, No. 12, of the School of Agriculture, just issued by the Min- 

 nesota Experiment Station. It has been prepared, as the authors, Prof. 

 S. B. Green and R. S. Mackintosh, state, as a guide for the use of the 

 classes in the greenhouse laboratory work of the Minnesota School of 

 Agriculture. Notwithstanding the fact that this outline is intended for 

 schools having far greater facilities than the high school teachers, still 

 there is much in the waj' of information and experiments that could be 



