3o6 Notes and Gleanings. 



press forward to conquest and glory, without bestowing a smile on the humlle 

 drudge that facilitates their progress." 



Lest the parallel should be too complete, we take space enough here to bestow 

 a smile on the humble catalogue-maker, and say that we have found his book 

 extremely accurate, so far as we are able to judge. Like all amateurs, Mr. Mer- 

 rick has his pet varieties, on which he bestows high praise ; but we think his 

 favorites are such as will bear praising. We notice that he considers the Rip- 

 powam to be identical with the Rivers's Eliza, and coolly snuffs the Boston 

 Beauty out of existence. 



The Mexican Everbearing people, we think, will put a rod in pickle for him, 

 and the admirers of the Wilson will call him a man of no taste. 



But one of the best chapters in the book is that on the question of taste, 

 where the duties of amateurs to the general public are well set forth. 



In brief, we may say that the book contains chapters on manures and the 

 preparation of the soil, on planting, on methods of cultivation, on insect ene- 

 mies, on forcing strawberries, and on the production of new varieties, together 

 with a descriptive list of nearly a thousand kinds, making a more complete and 

 exhaustive catalogue than any before published. 



We learn that the author submitted his manuscript to the revision of a judi- 

 cious horticultural friend, who pruned the luxuriance of the style, and cut out a 

 good many feeble jokes, which disfigured, rather than embellished, the work. 



More illustrations drawn from actual specimens are promised in future edi- 

 tions, and the work will thus gradually become more and more complete. 



Seventy-five Popular Flowers, and How to Cultivate Them. By Ed- 

 ward Sprague • Rand, Jr., author of " Flowers for the Parlor and Garden," 

 "Garden Flowers," "Bulbs," etc. Boston: J. E. Tilton & Co. i2mo., pp. 204. 

 Price $1.50. 



This little book of Mr. Rand's, though of less pretensions, and displaying less 

 botanical learning than his former works on flowers, will, for that very reason, 

 be more widely acceptable to the class for whom it is especially intended, viz., 

 amateurs who have not time to study the more elaborate and fuller works on the 

 subject, and who seek for a few plain, practical directions how to make their 

 gardens gay from the time when the hepaticas appear in spring, until the chrys- 

 anthemums close the autumn scene. I have no hesitation in pronouncing 

 it the best book of its class ever published, and would particularly note the fine 

 full-page illustrations, of which there are about thirty figuring the flowers. 



I do not think it would be possible to speak more highly of it than by say- 

 ing that the flowers described in it are truly popular flowers. Just why there 

 are seventy-five of them, I cannot say any more than I can tell why Bryant 

 published "Thirty Poems;" but suppose it "happened to come so." The 

 flowers are not all "popular," it is true, in the sense of being hardy ; but a large 

 majority of them arc, and the remainder are bedding plants of simple and easy 

 cultivation, even without the aid of a frame, green-house, or the protection of a 

 cellar in winter. I am glad to see that Mr. Rand has included among his 

 seventy-five favorites the hepatica, bloodroot, trillium, and others which have not 



