NOTICES OP BOOKS. 341 



NOTICES OF BOOKS. 



The Gardener^s Assistant, by the late Robert Thomson, of the 

 Royal Horticultural .Society's Gardens, Chiswick. New 

 Edition, edited by Wji. Watson, Curator, Royal Gardens, 

 Kew. London: The Gresham Publishing Company, 1902. 

 Two Volumes, £,'2, 10s. 



The Gardener's Assistant has always been recognised as one of 

 the standard works on gardening, and in the revised and remodelled 

 form in which it has recently issued from the press, it may be 

 looked upon as perhaps the most complete and up-to-date exposi- 

 tion of the practice of the art which has yet appeared. It is, in 

 fact, to the gardener of the present generation what M'Intosh's 

 Book of the Garden was to the gardener of half a century ago, or 

 what Brown's Forester in its latest form is to the forester of 

 to-day — an encyclopsedia to which he may turn for reliable infor- 

 mation on everything relating to the science and practice of his 

 art or craft. The book, which consists of two bulky volumes, has 

 been almost entirely rewritten, and the chapters on the various 

 branches of gardening have been contributed by some of the most 

 eminent specialists in their several departments. The introductory 

 part of the first volume consists of a calendar of operations in the 

 flower-garden and a short discourse on garden meteorology, followed 

 by a series of chapters by specialists on plant structure and 

 hybridization, insect and other friends and foes, fungoid diseases, 

 soils and manures, tools, garden structures and heating appliances, 

 propagation, transplanting and pruning, the flower-garden and 

 pleasure-grounds, hardy trees and shrubs, hardy herbaceous 

 perennials, aquatic and bog plants, annuals, popular garden 

 plants, plants grown under glass; spring, summer, and carpet 

 bedding, subtropical gardening and floral decoration. The second 

 volume is entirely devoted to the cultivation of fruit and vege- 

 tables, finishing up with a calendar of operations in the fruit and 

 kitchen garden, an appendix on the collecting, storing, and packing 

 of vegetables, and an excellent index to the whole work. The 

 book has been splendidly got up, paper, printing, and illustrating 

 alike reflecting the greatest credit on the publishers. The illustra- 



