390 Literary Notices. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



The American Dictionary of the English Language. By Noah 

 Webster, LL.D. Revised, enlarged, and improved, Sec. Spring- 

 field, Mass. : C. & G. Merriam, State Street, 1867. Pp. 1765. 



Webster's Dictionary is received as authority wherever the English lan- 

 guage is spoken. Even in the old form, it left little to be desired ; but this new 

 and revised edition surely leaves nothing for us to ask in elegance and accuracy. 



What would have been said a few years since to an illustrated dictionary ? 

 Our present purpose is, however, not to review a work which is well known to 

 all our readers, but simply to call attention to the beauty and accuracy of the 

 illustrations relating to agriculture and liorticulture. 



Botanical terms are often hard to be understood, and a definition is but a 

 roundabout way of coming to the true meaning ; while an illustration, appealing to 

 the eye at once, conveys the true meaning, and satisfies the understanding. 



The illustrations in the present edition of the dictionary are generally all 

 that we could wish, not only those explxining botanical terms, but the figures 

 of different plants and those illustrating modes of growth. 



We congratulate the publishers on the production of a work of such general 

 usefulness, and which must be so popular. 



American Pomology : Apples. By Dr. John A. Warder. New York : 

 Orange Judd. With 290 illustrations. 744 pages. 



This book is particularly written for the great North-west, — that part of the 

 country where the author resides. He says, in his preface, that he was called 

 upon to furnish a work on fruits peculiarly adapted to that region ; though he 

 claims, and jusdy v/e think, to have furnished a book that meets the wants of the 

 "orchardists of all portions of our country." He has most successfully accom- 

 plished his task, and given us a treatise on the apple, beginning with its early 

 history, and following it down to our own day; giving practical directions for the 

 propagation of the trees by seeds, budding, grafting, layering, (Sic, with very 

 minute and careful directions for the successful performance of all operations 

 connected with the same. Then follows the dwarfing of the apple ; a practice, by 

 the way, that is growing in favor with our liorticulturists, as it furnishes, like the 

 dwarf-pear, a greater number of varieties on the same space than can be obtained 

 on standards. Other subjects are considered, — such as the diseases of trees, and 

 their treatment ; the site for an orchard ; preparation of soil ; selection of vari- 

 eties ; planting the same ; the philosophy of pruning, thinning, ripening, and 

 preserving fruits ; with some statements concerning Prof. Nyce's new method 

 of preserving fruit ; the insects injurious to trees and fruits ; followed by several 

 hundred outline engravings of apples, with a minute and particular description 



