Sept. 26, 1878] 



NATURE 



563 



to thousands of Londoners owing to the impossibility of 

 reaching them without struggling through narrow and 

 mean streets and roads." 



The first chapter of Mr. Robinson's book opens with a 

 consideration of the Bois de Boulogne, and from it we 

 may learn much that is good both in the way of artistic 

 grouping, planning, and in the selection of individual 

 plants. Unlike what we too often see in pubhc parks and 

 gardens, the vegetation along the banks of the lakes in 

 the Bois is properly diversified, "so that at one place 

 we meet with conifers, at another rock shrubs, at another 

 magnolias, and so on, without the eternal repetition of 

 common things which one too often sees." The author 

 next proceeds to point out the great advantage of per- 

 manent planting over that of plants which show only 

 a fleeting annual display. In spring the early bloom and 

 budding leaves are in themselves things of beauty, and 

 are even more so when seen collectively or in company 

 with each other. In summer they furnish an infinite 

 variety of form and consequent depth of tone, while in 

 autumn " the number and richness of the tints of the 

 foliage afford a varied picture from week to week, and in 

 winter the many graceful forms of the deciduous trees 

 among the ev«rgreen shrubs and pines offer as much to 

 interest an observant eye as at any other season." 



On the subject of sub-tropical gardening, which is well 

 exemplified in the Park Monceau, the author writes in 

 his pleasantest manner, as the following extract will 

 show: — "We may be pleased by the wide spread of 

 purple on a heath or mountain, but when we go near 

 and examine it in detail we find that its most exquisite 

 aspect is seen in places where the long moss cushions 

 itself beside the Ling, and the fronds of the Polypody 

 peer forth around little masses of heather. Everywhere 

 we see nature judicious in the arrangement of her highest 

 effects, setting them in clouds of verdant leafage, so that 

 monotony is rarely produced — a state of things which it 

 is highly desirable to attain, as far as possible, in the 

 garden. We cannot attempt to reproduce this literally, 

 nor would it be wise or convenient to do so ; but 

 assuredly herein will be found the chief source of true 

 beauty and interest in our gardens ; and the more we 

 keep this fact before our eyes the nearer will be our 

 approach to truth and success. 



" We should compose from nature, as landscape artists 

 do. We may have in our gardens — and without making 

 wildernesses of them — all the shade, the relief, the grace, 

 the beauty, and nearly all the irregularity of nature. 

 This bold growth of * fine-f oliaged plants ' has shown us 

 that one of the greatest mistakes ever made in the garden 

 was the adoption of a few varieties of plants for culture 

 on a vast scale, to the exclusion of interest and variety, 

 and too often of beauty or taste. We have seen how 

 well the pointed, tapering leaves of the cannas carry the 

 eye upwards ; how refreshing it is to cool the eyes in the 

 deep green of those thoroughly tropical castor-oil plants, 

 with their gigantic leaves, how noble the W^igandia, with 

 its fine texture and massive outline looks, after we have 

 surveyed brilliant lines and richly painted leaves ; how, 

 too, the bold tropical palm leaves beautify the garden. In 

 a word, the system has shown us the difference between 

 the gardening that interests and delights all beholders, 

 and not the horticulturist only, and that which is too 



often offensive to the eye of taste and pernicious to 

 every true interest of what has been called * the purest of 

 human pleasures.' " 



Notwithstanding the general inferest kept up through- 

 out Mr. Robinson's book, no part is of greater interest 

 than the chapter on the cultivation of mushrooms in the 

 caves under Paris, where, at a depth of from sixty to 

 eighty feet below the surface of the ground, in old stone 

 quarries, this edible fungus is g^own systematically on a 

 very large scale. These caves furnish not only the daily 

 supply of the Paris markets, but to a large extent those 

 of England and other countries also, preserved mush- 

 rooms to the extent of 14,000 boxes annually being ex- 

 ported to this country by one house alone. It is estimated 

 that in and around Paris the daily production of mush- 

 rooms amounts to about twenty-five tons, of the value of 

 about 1,000/., or close upon 400,000/. per annum. One 

 large grower near St. Denis is described as employing 

 nineteen horses and fifty men. Mushrooms are very 

 extensively used in France, not only in their fresh state, 

 but preserved in various ways, either by tinning, bottling, 

 preserving in butter or oil, or reducing to powder. 



The book is exceedingly well printed and carefully 

 got up. 



OUR BOOK SHELF 



Elements of Physiography. By Prof. D. T. Ansted, M.A., 

 F.R.S. (Allen and Co.) 



We are glad to see a book on physiography from the pen 

 of Prof. Ansted, whose name has so long been associated 

 with the literature of physical geography. If the new 

 subject, however, is to be treated as it is in the present 

 work, we fail to see the advantage of any change. The 

 distinctive parts of physiography are all got through in 

 an introduction of some eighteen pages, which we fear are 

 too much written up to the ipsissima verba of the syllabus 

 issued by the Science and Art Department to be of much 

 educational value. 



And, in fact, it is on this point that we find most fault 

 with the book. Take these two paragraphs concerning 

 aqueous vapour, pp. loi, 102, and note the absence of the 

 why in every case. 



"Aqueous vapour is frequently rendered visible as 

 mist, fog, or cloud. These are varieties of the same 

 condition. Mist is formed when currents of air of 

 different temperatiu-e, both containing invisible vapour, 

 meet near the earth. In valleys such mixtures are 

 very frequent, and in mountainous countries very 

 striking. Fogs are formed in the same way in tem- 

 perate climates at various seasons, and hang over shores 

 and the mouths of certain streams. 



" Clouds are produced when mixtures of currents 

 take place at some distance above the ground, and the 

 visible vapour is entirely detached from the earth. 

 There are several varieties of clouds, some floating at a 

 height of many miles, some hovering in large masses in 

 mid-air, some drooping downwards and almost touching 

 the earth. They are rarely alike long together. They 

 assume, as we know, the most fantastic shapes, and are 

 occasionally decorated with brilliant tints of colour ! It 

 is only the clouds that form in large masses and ap- 

 proach the earth that dissolve into heavy and long- 

 continued rain, but all clouds are capable of yielding 

 rain, and drops sometimes, though rarely, fall through 

 air perfectly clear and cloudless." 



A student had better not be taught at all than be taught 

 in this manner, and, in fact, a student of average intelligence, 

 after reading such a string of assertions without the least 



