266 HE VIEWS OF BOOKS. [Aug. 



Congrds International dc Botaniquc d (V Horticulture cVAnvers : 

 Rapports Preliminaires V and 2'"^ Fascicules. 



These tlie publications of the Botanical and Horticultural Congress, 

 held under the patronage of H.M. Leopold II., from the 1st to 

 the 10th of August, contain papers of permanent value by some 

 of the ablest European botanists on some of the questions of the 

 programme which are to be submitted to the botanists assembled 

 in conference this month. The culture of edible mushrooms, the 

 place of botany and agriculture in secondary education, the organiza- 

 tion of botanical laboratories, how far the study of cryptogams 

 should form a part of a course on agriculture or sylviculture, the 

 best methods of teaching theoretical and practical botany in schools 

 of horticulture and agriculture, including the study of vegetable 

 pathology in such institutions, insect pests, as well as such con- 

 trasted subjects as the best way to treat in monographs genera 

 containing numerous species, and sewage waters, are the subjects of 

 one or more elaborate essays by experts. The programmes of 

 botanical teaching given in the second number, whether in primary 

 schools or in the special State institutions for technical training in agri- 

 culture, horticulture, and sylviculture, possess much present interest. 



Woods and Forests Department : Annual Catcdoguc of Trees for Free 

 Distribution, Season 1885—86 : With Description of Trees, Soils, 

 and Situations stiitcd)le for each kind. Directions for Planting, 

 and Conditions of Issue, etc. Adelaide : E. Spiller, Government 

 Printer. 1885. 

 This, the last literary issue by the South Australian Government, 

 is for distribution among the participants of its free grants of young 

 trees for planting to corporations, district councils, farmers, and 

 others, arising out of the annual vote of £300 passed by the 

 Colonial Parliament during the current year. There are con- 

 sequently about 423,420 trees, embracing thirty different kinds 

 for distribution. The Government holds that while it cannot compel 

 a man to plant, it may persuade him to do so. 



Pevue des Eaux ct Forets for June and July contains capital papers 

 on the Erench pine blight, as well as discussions on the treatment 

 of fir forests and of resins. 



Eeom the July number of Meehau's American Gardener's Monthly, 

 we learn that the question of the disadvantages of our present 

 Exhibition prize system has cropped up in connection with tlie 

 New Orleans Exhibition, now closed till November. 



