62 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



toxic to certain others when grown in their vicinity seems to 

 bear out the contention that one of the functions of fertiHzers 

 is to neutralize these toxic elements in the soil. Be this as it 

 may the present book is a very clear and comprehensive ac- 

 count of Dr. Hopkins' investigations arid conclusions and must 

 be taken into account by all who are concerned in improving 

 the land. It is an octavo of more than 650 pages and is pub- 

 lished by Ginn & Co.. at $2.75. 



Beecroft's "Who's Who Among the Wildfiowers" is 

 another little volume designed to aid the beginner in naming 

 the commoner wildfiowers. It arranges the plants according 

 to color and presents a succession of drawings with brief de- 

 scriptions of the plant its range and time of blooming. Part 

 of each descriptive page is reserved for notes. Many of the 

 'drawings are evidently taken frim other works but many serve 

 the purpose of giving an idea of the fiower. The lack of any 

 popular information about the different species represented 

 will be felt by those who are desirous of knowing more about 

 the plant than its mere name indicates. The book, however, 

 costs less than other works of similar nature and will doubtless 

 be welcomed by many who are interested in the w^ild flowers. 

 The book is published by Moffat, Yard & Co., of New York, 

 at $1.20 net. 



Often in turning the leaves of the seedman's catalogue 

 we have wished for a book that would tell us of these garden 

 flowers much as the popular flower-guides tell us of our com- 

 mon wildowers. It is with special delight, then, that we turn 

 to the newly issued "Our Garden Flowers" by Harriet L. 

 Keller only to fin'd with regret that the author has failed to 

 perform her self-imposed task successfully. Garden flowers in 

 abundance tlie book contains, but the very flowers of which 

 we know least and would fain know more, are missing. For 



