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GARDENERS' CHRONICLE 



conspicuous in June. As a lawn specimen Sophora japonica peii- 

 dula, with g.ossy, Acacia-Iikc foliage, and creamy-white flowers, 

 which appear at the end of the shtK)ts, is worthy ot note. Labur- 

 nums are tnne-honored favorites, and tiK>ugli there is a weeping 

 form, L. riilsarc pendulum, the variety L. I ossi is quite as attrac- 

 tive, ownig to the length of the bright yellow racemes. 



In conclusion, a word in favor of weeping Roses may, perhaps, 

 be permitted, for of all ornamerital flowering trees they are the 

 handsomest. Budded on tall Briars, they soon make massive heads, 

 and no system of training displays the beautiful trusses of bloom 

 to more advantage. Suitab.e Ramblers for the purpose include 

 the well-known Hiawatha. Dorothy Perkins, Excclsa. and Mrs. 

 F. W. Flight.— (;ii;</<-)ii»i' Jllujinil'cd. 



Rose G.\rdexing, by Mary Hampden. Charles Scribner's Sons, 

 \e\v York. 



The ardent rosarian ought by all means to ixissess this newest 

 addition to the big library of his idol, for it tells w-ell not only 

 how to manage roses but also how to enjo)- them. Under as 

 many as forty-two cha|)ter headings are treated all possible 

 aspects. But, written by an enthusiastic English woman, it is 

 a book that must be used with caution by the American amateur 

 with even a fair amount of practice and is apt to involve the 

 tyro in regrettable e.xperiences. In the United States of America 

 only in the Puget Sound region can roses be grown as easily as 

 they are grown in England. Many e.xceptions must consequently 

 be taken to the many long and very interesting lists of varieties 

 with their descriptions. The American fancier furthermore will 

 miss such varieties as Radiance, Red Radiance and General Mc- 

 Arthur among those named for bedding; Columbia and several 

 others among those that are "e.xcellent roses for picking"; and 

 Silver Moon among the Hybrid Wichurianas ; while it is strange 

 that in a book written by a European no mention is made among 

 the Teas of Lady Plymouth, nor among the Hybrid Multifloras 

 of Caprice Rouge, nor among the fragrant roses of Garlie Rose, 

 perhaps the sweetest smelling of all climbers, nor of Mme. Maurice 

 de Lnze as a rose of remarkable fragrance, nor of Mrs. Herbert 

 Hawsmith as having lovely color, nor of Marie Pavio and Orleans 

 as two of the finest Polyanthas. 



In the lists there is gratifying accuracy in spelling the names, 

 except that of Dr. Van Meek lamentably appears for Dr. W. 

 Van Fleet, Anne of Gierstcin for .\nne of Geierstein, Blanc Dou- 

 ble de Combert for Blanc Double de Coubert, and, as in Ameri- 

 can catalogs all too commonly Gruess an Teplitz for Gruss an 

 Teplitz and Tausendschon for Tausendschoen. The one named 

 here last is repeated in one list under the name of Thousand 

 Beauties, which, of course, is but the translation of its German 

 name. 



The advice concerning practical operations is judicious and 

 clearly expressed : it is strange only that the author's experience 

 with suckering has not persuaded her that the plant ought not 

 be set only so deep that the union of a budded rose is just cov- 

 ered. (In comiection one wonders that Europeans are so slow 

 to take up with the Japanese mnllifiora as stocks.) 



But the work has many redeeming features. The eight colored 

 plates, picturing eighteen important varieties, are more successful 

 than have been most attempts to imitate on paper the rich and 

 rather elusive tints of the double rose. They all prove again. 

 however, that in western Europe the hues of nearly all roses are 

 brighter and more intense than in this country. Particularly com- 

 mendable are the chapters Briar Roses. The Whims of Roses. 

 Rose Pruning, Disbudding and P'eeding Roses, in which are given 

 twenty-five recipes for fertilizing. Watering Roses, and Curing 

 the Ills of Roses, which contains twenty-eight prescriptions. 



The book is least satisfactory in treating of garden plans and 

 genera! arrangement ; most of the designs for beds are fantastic 

 and if followed out would involve endless labor in trimming the 

 grass around them. — F. B. M. 



The Amateur's Book of the Dahlia, by Mrs. Charles II 

 Stout. Doubleday, Page and Company. Garden Cit\'. N. Y. 



In view of the long-time vogue of the Dahlui it is strange that 

 not till now has it had consecrated to it a complete and systemat- 

 ically arranged book. Excepting the rose alone no garden flower 

 of greatly diversified form and requiring and deserving so much 

 study and experience in management lias been grown by so many 

 amateur gardeners as has the Dahlia. At la.sf there has appeared 

 this neatly made volume, excellent in its scholarly grasp of the 

 entire wide field and presenting in nearly ideal form all the phases. 

 historical, esthetic and practical. In an entertaining style, spiced 

 now and then with a little modest humor, are set forth all im- 

 aginable topics, including even Dahlia Show^s and a well thought 

 out discussion of the possibilities of establishing new tyjies and 

 of the flower in its relation to the professional and .imateiir 

 growers of other countries. 



The well arranged volume ends with a chart in which appear, 

 in alphabetical order, the names of several hundred carefullv 

 selected varieties with notation nf the important points. Con- 



venient blank spaces are left for the owner of a copy of the book 

 to insert notes on deserving new varieties which are continuously 

 to be expected by legions almost in the case of a llower so 

 easily ana so quickly brou^l'l to blossom from seed of its varied 

 and distinct types. These biaiik spaces might be regarded as a 

 confession of the author's inability to ofl'er lists of recommended 

 varieties that are quite up-to-date and completely satisfying to 

 the more enthusiastic fancier. She has, of course, kept iii touch 

 with originators in the various parts of the councry, not excepting 

 those of the Paciiic coast ; but sne has found it manifestly im- 

 possible to embrace in her work very many of the supremely fine 

 new dahlias raised recently in California. The amateur, for 

 whom the book is wriueii, could wish onl.v that more pictures 

 had been used, particularly colored ones, and that the chart were 

 accompanied by a preseniation of the different tvpes in pictorial 

 form.— I'. B. M 



Fruit-Growing, by Benjamin Wallace Douglass. The Bobbs- 

 Merrill Company, Indianapolis. 



In its very beginning the book at once inspires confidence by 

 declaring that, as the business of fruit growing is extremely af- 

 fected by local conditions, as is shown, "'the endeavor has been 

 to la\ down basic principles uiion which the whole business rests; 

 where new methods are mentioned they are based on experiments 

 conlincd not to a few trees but to some hundreds of acres and 

 over i.ot months but years of work." .-Xnd in keeping with the 

 sense of reliability felt by the reader as he reads is the attractive 

 and entertaining character of the style ; it is quite worthy of the 

 Hocsier State which has produced so notable a crop of authors as 

 well as of fruits of the field ; nothing could be finer, for exam- 

 ple, than the historical sketch that introduces the chapter on 

 Grape X'arieties. 



Sonic statements will be found by most readers just a little 

 startling. One is that there can be no such thing as a pedigreed 

 tree, for the "parent" tree produced tlie fine fruit not because of 

 any inherent quality of the tree itself but because it was planted 

 in a congenial soil, had a congenial climate and was well cared 

 for : a Rambo that produces little knotty, worth.ess apples may 

 be the ])arent of a fine Rambo tree just as easily as could a tree 

 that bore only fine fruit. There are w-ise words about the habit 

 of growth of dift'erent varieties of apple trees, about using 

 fillers in planting, about dynamiting before setting the trees — in 

 certain soils and under certain conditions it may be useless and 

 even liarmful; about cultivation and mulching — clean cultivation 

 and dust mulching are best, but cultivation should cease by the 

 middle of August .and a vigorously growing cover should be over 

 the grotind by the middle of October at the latest, while on hills 

 the j'oung orchard should be cultivated as long as possible without 

 too much loss of soil from washing and then seeded to grass or 

 clover so that the mulching material will be grown in the orchard; 

 about fertilizing — as a rule fertilizers applied on orchards in grass 

 give results while they do not give results when applied to culti- 

 vated orchards ; about pruning — by the time our tree has reached 

 the age it should begin to produce fruit our annual pruning should 

 be reduced to a minimum ; about spraying ; about harvesting and 

 marketing — tlie tendency should be toward growing fruit in small 

 orchards to supply local demand, in attractive parcels; about 

 planting large trees — there is no more wicked phrase in horticul- 

 ture than the nurseryman's alUiring "immediate results." — F. B. M. 



GARriKxiXG. by \. B. Stout. World Book Cunipauy, Yonkcrs- 

 on- Hudson. 



This is an elementary school text treating of the science and 

 art of growing vegetables, designed especially for junior high 

 schools. The subject is developed through a combination of home 

 and school activities and is correlated with other school subjects. 

 The practical directions are full ami complete so that the teacher 

 can devote much of his time to tlie wider aspects of the work 

 and thus make the study of general cultural value. But it is a 

 book to be recommended to the more mature person also who, 

 without having had opportunity to study .gardening under in- 

 struction, desires to know every detail, from the breeding of 

 plants and the growing of the seed to the gathering aiul the 

 storing of the crops. The authoritative character of the volume 

 is attested by the fact that the author has been from boyhood a 

 home gardener, has been a teacher in elementary sclnxils, in the 

 high school, in the normal school and in the university and for 

 nearly three years taught gardening to classes of convalescent 

 soldiers and sailors at the Ncw^ York Botanical (iarden. where 

 he is now director of the laboratories; the different parts were 

 carefully cxamine<l also, in advance of the iniblicatimi. by recog- 

 nized experts and successful gardeners in various parts of the 

 country. 



The book is attractive in appearance. The 18S pictures are 

 nearly all from photographs and are unusually instructive, with 

 very few exceptions. Quotations, collectively entitled Garden 

 Lore, emphasize the esthetic and ethical aspects of gardening.— 

 F. B. M. 



