REVIEWS AND NOTICES OF BOOKS. Ill 



gardener, forester, or amateur cannot peruse the introductory 

 chapters of Mr Bean's work without advantage. It should be 

 borne in mind, however, that the author's observations have 

 been conducted mainly at Kew, where a dry soil, summer heat 

 and winter cold, provide conditions very different to those 

 prevailing in many other parts of the realm, especially the 

 western seaboard of Great Britain and the greater part of 

 Ireland. No one is better aware of this than Mr Bean himself, 

 who has visited and critically inspected gardens and parks in 

 all districts. 



"Some explanation," says he, "of the term 'hardy' as 

 used in the following pages is perhaps needed. There is a 

 great variety of climate in the British Isles, and the word 

 * hardy ' has a very different significance, say, in eastern 

 Northumberland to what it has at Falmouth or Cork. 

 Although we are apt, almost instinctively, to regard the soft- 

 ness of climate as progressing from north to south, it is, in 

 Great Britain, rather from east to west.. Thus, plants can be 

 grown on the west coast of Scotland as far to the north as 

 Ross-shire, such as Desfofitainea, Tricuspidaria, and Himalayan 

 rhododendrons, which are absolutely hopeless at Kew." 



To this I have to add but two observations : first, that there 

 are some puzzling exceptions to the general rule that our 

 western climate is milder than the eastern. On the shores of 

 the Moray Firth, for instance, certain plants flourish luxuriantly 

 which it would be vain to put in the open in Norfolk. Secondly, 

 Mr Bean hardly lays enough stress on the deadly effect of wind 

 upon choice trees and shrubs. Many things, especially Asiatic 

 rhododendrons, will endure very severe winter cold without 

 injury, but succumb, or at least forfeit all grace of growth, 

 unless sheltered from withering winds. 



The bulk of Mr Bean's two fat volumes, containing some 

 1400 closely printed pages, consists of a descriptive list of 

 genera and species, conveniently arranged in alphabetical 

 order, with a botanical description of each species, its origin, 

 relative merit and cultural requirements. And whereas ninety 

 per cent, of the hardy exotics described have not received 

 distinctive names, and their scientific appellations in a dead 

 language are subject to frequent change at the decree of 

 the autocrats of Kew, Mr Bean has a most satisfying index, 

 containing not only the English and authorised Latin names 



