30 HAND-LIST OF TREES AND SHRUBS. 



mainly responsible for its compilation, none will question its value. 

 But it may be permitted to express a doubt whether it should have 

 been allowed to take precedence of the s^'eatly needed Guide to the 

 Gardens, which has now been out of print for many years, and the 

 absence of which must deprive the Gardens of much of their value 

 to a very large proportion of visitors. For one person to whom the 

 Hand-list — or rather this instalment of it — will be of service, 

 hundreds would purchase and profit by a general guide to Kew 

 Gardens. 



With regard to the Hand-list, it may be doubted whether its 

 form is the most convenient that could have been adopted. Wiien 

 complete, it will contain at least a thousand pages — a somewhat 

 serious addition to the contents of one's pocket. But perhaps it is 

 intended as a book for the study rather than the garden — a 

 suggestion which receives support from the extensive synonymy, 

 which for practical purposes might well have been reduced, e.g., 

 the five synonyms given under Drimys Winteri are purely of 

 botanical interest. Only alternate pages are printed and numbered, 

 by which means the bulk of the book is doubled for the benefit of 

 the comparatively few who are likely to use the blank pages for 

 notes. 



A gardener's rather than a botanist's view of species is taken in 

 certain cases, and a large — nay, an "immense" — number of trade 

 and garden names have been brought into order. The arrange- 

 ment of species is usually alphabetical, but there are exceptions, 

 as in the genus Prunns, which is treated in the wide sense of 

 Bentham and Hooker's Genera Plantanun, but is divided into 

 sections, in each of which a fresh alphabet is begun. The varieties 

 included seem very numerous, but the Curator of the Gardens may 

 be trusted to select only such as are worthy of mention. There is 

 a capital index — of synonyms as well as retained names- -and with 

 very few exceptions — as when " Cleyera species " is printed in the 

 thick type which signifies "name adopted at Kew" — it is admirably 

 printed. A reference to a good figure, and a brief indication of 

 geographical range, follow the names of most species. 



It is strange that no headings should have been put to the 

 pages. In this respect the List contrasts unfavourably with the 

 Kew Floras, in which the name of the order and the genus are 

 given on each page. Here there is no such indication, nor is even 

 the name of the species repeated when that extends over a second 

 page; so that one not only opens upon "yJ. ritbruni" or "P. 

 Michauxi," but on " var. azorica" or " var. an/entea medio-picta," 

 without any clue to the genus or even the order of which these are 

 representatives. Of course tins clue is supplied by turning back- 

 wards, sometimes for several pages ; but it is of the first importance 

 that lists of this kind should be easy to consult, and headings such 

 as we have mentioned would in nine cases out of ten save the 

 necessity of consulting the index. We hope that this drawback 

 will be obviated in the following portions of the book ; and that 

 the blight which so often arrests the development of publications in 

 instalments will not hinder the speedy completion of this useful List. 



