1870.] REVIEWS. 333 



Mr Robinson gives due prominence, and one certain tendency of the book will be 

 to extend the culture of the Mushroom to localities suited to its outdoor growth. 

 It is written in that sprightly, readable style common to the author's writings; it 

 is profusely and pleasantly illustrated and handsomely got up. The chapters on 

 the modes of cooking the Mushroom, and on some of the edible fungi, are well 

 timed, and not the least valuable. We can best express our opinion of the merits 

 of this book by heartily recommending it to our readers. 



Rustic Adornments for Homes of Taste. By Shirley Hibberd. A new edition, 

 revised, corrected, and enlarged, with nine coloured plates and two hun- 

 dred and thirty wood engravings. Groombridge & Sons, Paternoster Row, 

 London. 

 Some idea of the scope of this charmingly-got-up book may be gathered from 

 its table of contents. In relation to the adornments of the house, it treats of the 

 marine aquarium, fresh-water aquarium, fern case, balcony and window garden, 

 floral ornaments, miniature hot - house, chamber birds, and the aviary. The 

 adornments of the garden embrace the conservatory, fern-house, apiary, pleasure- 

 garden, flower-garden, outdoor fernery, rockery and wilderness, water-scenes, 

 summer-house, and a chapter on miscellaneous garden ornaments. It is, there- 

 fore, a record of the incidents of gardening ; and the breadth of treatment of the 

 different subjects, combined with its lively style and abundant illustrations, makes 

 it an altogether unique book. As a gift-book it is, perhaps, unsurpassed by any 

 other of a similar character ; it is so handsomely bound that it makes an admir- 

 able ornament for the drawing-room table; but its great distinguishing charm 

 lies in the fact that it is peculiarly a home book, breathing beneficent influences, 

 and shedding abroad the light of numberless domestic enjoyments — most gentle 

 and refreshing recreations, all or any one of which must greatly aid the dis- 

 semination of a healthy home influence. What higher praise can be written 

 concerning it ? 



The Student's Flora of the British Islands. By J. D. Hooker, M.D., 

 Director of the Royal Gardens, Kew. Macmillan & Co., London. 



The object of this book, as stated in the preface, is "to supply students and 

 field-botanists with a fuller account of the plants of the British Islands than the 

 manuals hitherto in use aim at giving." The work is purely technical, but still 

 one of great value to botanical students, while the practical horticulturist will 

 find in it much information of a valuable character. Dr Hooker's high position 

 as a botanist and an accurate man of science is a sufficient guarantee for the 

 character and completeness of such a work as this. 



The closing paragraph of the preface contains the promise of another work from 

 the pen of the gifted author, which will be to a great extent a fitting sequel to 

 the volume under notice. " When I commenced this flora," writes DrHooker, " it 

 was my intention to have made it a record of those physiological and morphological 

 observations on British plants which have of late given so great an impulse and 

 zest to botanical pursuits, and toward which I was offered much assistance from 

 my friends Mr Darwin, Professor Oliver, and Professor Dickson of Glasgow, and 

 this intention was my chief inducement to undertake the work. I had, however, 

 made but little progress before I discovered that the number of such observations 

 was so great, and that the value, accuracy, and interpretation of many were so 

 disputed, that to make even a small selection from them would be a very difficult 

 task, and would have filled a volume far exceeding the dimensions required for 

 students. I do not abandon the hope of being able at some future time to under- 

 take such a task, in the form of a companion to the 'Student's Flora.' " 



