REVIEWS AND NOTICES OF BOOKS. 1 53 



REVIEWS AND NOTICES OF BOOKS. 



The Cultivated Evergreens. Edited by L. H. Bailey. Macmillan 

 and Co. Price 31s. 6d. net. 



This is an American book, and essentially written for those 

 who cultivate trees and shrubs in the Eastern United States and 

 in Canada. It is the production of many contributors, under the 

 editorship of Mr L. H. Bailey. 



Of the book's 371 pages (exclusive of indices) 331 deal only 

 with the Coniferae ; in your reviewer's opinion it would have 

 been better had it been confined to them. It in fact includes 

 descriptions of the deciduous genera — Larix, Fseudolarix, 

 Tax odium, and Gingko. 



The chapters on Coniferae provide much interesting informa- 

 tion for the general reader, and still more for the advantage of 

 the American nurseryman. The contributors are experts in 

 cultivation, and an immense amount of valuable knowledge is 

 collected in the volume on such matters as insect and fungoid 

 diseases, propagation by grafting, transplanting, pruning, and 

 the behaviour of different species under cultivation. We are 

 told that the annual supply of Christmas trees in the United 

 States amounts to five million ! Some of the more tender 

 coniferous genera, plants little known in this country, such as 

 Agathis, Widdringtonia, Taiwania, and Cunninghamia are 

 said to be in successful cultivation in California and in such 

 southern states as Virginia. The number of species that can be 

 satisfactorily grown so far north as the state of New York 

 and in New England is somewhat small, and those that flourish 

 best there are, as a general rule, not well suited to the climate 

 of Great Britain. 



The contributors to this book are agreed that one of the 

 finest and most shapely conifers in the east is Tsuga canadensis — 

 usually a many-headed tree here and far inferior to Tsuga 

 Albertiana of the west, which refuses to grow at the Arnold 

 Arboretum. Indeed, though the native Finns rigida, P. resinosa 

 (most misleadingly called Norway pine in America), and the 

 Chinese P. Bungeana are described as very useful species for 

 ornamental planting, they are not much use to us. Scarcely 

 one of the great conifers of the Pacific Coast will stand the 

 hot summers and low winter temperatures of Massachusetts 



