159 



2JEW BOOKS. 



Echoes or Plant and Floaveb Life. By Leo H. Grindon. (F. Pitman). — 

 A delightful book of gossip on the poetical aspects of vegetable forms. It is 

 German in thought, French in accuracy, English in its common-sense tone and 

 sobriety of language. Mr. Grindon is as well acquainted as any man with the 

 curiosities of plant structure, and knows how to seize upon striking analogies and 

 resemblances to point a moral or adorn a tale. Persons of all ages might read this 

 book with pleasure, but the young will be especially charmed with it. 



Wayside Lyrics. By George Newman. (Whittaker). — A pretty-looking book, 

 which we have not time to read, or even to look into. We will take it upon trust, 

 and hope it is as good as it looks. 



Beautiful-leaved Plants. By Shirley Hilberd. (Bell and Daldy). — The 

 numbers of this work published since our last notice of it contain figures of Coleus 

 Marshalli, etc., Telfordi, Passiflora trifasciata, Phalamopsis Schilleriana, Croton 

 irregulare, and C. Hilli ; Sanchezia nobilis, and Yucca aloifolia variegata. 



Ferns : British and Foreign-. By John Smith, Ex-Curator of Royal Botanic 

 Gardens, Kew. (Hardwicke). — In this compact and handy volume we have the 

 results of a lifetime of labour, by one of the most experienced pteridologists of the 

 day, and one, moreover, who has had the peculiar advantage of an official appoint- 

 ment at Kew for the perfecting of his work. We do not agree with all Mr. Smith's 

 distinctions and arrangements, but his book offers many advantages, especially in 

 its copious references to descriptions, figures, and synonyms. The chief bulk of 

 the book consists of an enumeration of genera and species, but there are good intro- 

 ductory chapters on structure and classification, and a supplementary essay on culti- 

 vation. It is a book which every collector of ferns must have. 



Received. — The Gardener 's Magazine ; The Gardener's Record ; The Student, 

 and Intellectual Observer ; The Treasury, and Ladies Treasury ; The Scientific 

 Review; The Botanical Magazine ; The Illustration Sorticole ; The Christian 

 World Magazine. 



TO COEEESPONDENTS. 



Double-flowering Peaches. — H. W. P. — You would have no occasion to com- 

 plain of dulness and monotony in your conservatory at this season if you were to 

 buy a few good specimens of the beautiful double-flowering peach. They are cheap 

 enough now, and as they bloom early out of doors, the shelter of a cold house will 

 bring them out nicely in the beginning of March, and the plants will have a telling 

 effect intermixed with the dark foliage of camellias and the light flowers of other 

 subjects. If you are fond of budding, the cheapest way will be to order a few estab- 

 lished specimens and a few dozen peach stocks from the nearest nursery that can 

 supply tnem. Plant the stocks carefully, and bud the double-flowering kinds on 

 these early in August, or at such other time as the stocks and buds may be in a proper 

 condition for working. There is very little difference between budding these and a 

 rose, except that the latter is budded on the young wood and the former on the old. 

 In the following autumn plant at equal di-tances apart, and regularly lift every 

 autumn, and stop and train through the summer until the plants are in proper trim 

 for potting. Pot in September, and always plunge the pots out of doors in the full 

 sun through the summer. Never mind a few roots coming through the holes in the 

 bottom of the pot. Though we have given you the cheapest plan, we should advise 

 you to go to a nursery and buy in a few nice little pyramids well-established in 

 pot->, and not trouble about propagating them yourself. 



Early-flowering Pelargoniums. — T. S., Northampton.— None of the fancy 

 varieties are sufficiently early to flower in February. The following are all good for 

 early flowering, but none of the early sorts have such well-finished flowers as the best 

 varieties which bloom in May ; Gauntlet is still the best winter flowerer. You will 

 do well to add the following six early bloomers to your collection : — Clarissa, crimson 

 and pink; Etna, vermilion-scarlet, with black spots on top petals ; Flamingo, lake- 

 crimson ; Minnie, white, with rosy spot on top petals ; Snowdrop, pure white, with 

 purple blotch ; Premier, rosy-pink, crimson spot. The undermentioned are amongst 



