February 2, 1905] 



NA TURE 



.'5 



good effect upon the pollen, and therefore assists in 

 securing the fertilisation of the flowers. 



Since that time the pot fruit trees cultivated in the 

 Sawbridgevvorth nurseries of Messrs. T. Rivers and 

 Son have provided a unique object lesson to British 

 fruit growers, and the system has been imitated in 

 other commercial establishments and in many private 

 gardens, a notable instance being the gardens belong- 

 ing to Mr. Leopold de Rothschild at Gunnersbury 

 House, Acton, where excellent results are obtained 

 notwithstanding the fact that the gardens are in 

 London. The author of the book under review has 

 been charged with the care of the orchard houses at 

 Sawbridgeworth for more than twenty years, and the 

 details of cultivation he explains are those which 

 have been practised with such conspicuous success in 

 that establishment. It may be admitted that the 

 orchard house is more necessary in the colder districts 

 of midland and northern counties than in the south, 

 but even in the south the season of ripe fruits can be 

 prolonged by orchard house culture, and more perfectly 

 developed apples and pears obtained for particular 

 purposes. Who that has seen the exquisite specimens 

 exhibited at the autumn fruit shows has not wished 

 to cultivate fruits of similar excellence? It is the 

 mission of Mr. Brace's book to assist the reader to 

 accomplish this purpose. 



In the first chapter the author has described very 

 minutely the construction of the best type of houses, 

 and the importance of commencing with suitable 

 structures is so great that we are not disposed to com- 

 plain that the subject occupies one-fifth of the 

 book, as well as several diagrams. From every point 

 of view houses with span-shaped roofs are best, and if 

 Mr. Brace's instructions are studied, the cultivator, by 

 moving his trees out of doors at suitable periods, will 

 be able to make the most of the space afforded in the 

 houses. 



In chapter ii., in which the furnishing of the houses 

 with trees is considered, the best methods of arranging 

 them are described, so that as many trees may be 

 grown as possible, and yet none be obscured by the 

 others. If only one house is built, and this is of an 

 appreciable size, it should be divided into sections, 

 because peaches and nectarines can be treated more 

 successfully when grouped by themselves, as the trees 

 need to be syringed daily until the fruits begin to ripen, 

 which would not be possible if cherries or plums, 

 which ripen much earlier in the season, were associated 

 with them in the same division. 



Chapter iii. must be read very carefully, and should 

 be frequently referred to by the inexperienced culti- 

 vator. It contains details of cultivation, explains the 

 best forms of training for the different kinds of trees, 

 the process of potting, methods of forcing, pruning, 

 summer pinching, value of surface dressings to the 

 roots, cost of trees, &-c. In the cultivation of fruit 

 trees in pots, whether half standards, or bush trees of 

 peaches, nectarines, and plums, or pyramids of apples 

 and pears, the work of pruning and pinching is of 

 the greatest importance, and if it be done unskilfully 

 not only will the trees be unshapely and the fruit spurs 

 become longer than is desirable, but the trees will fail 

 NO^ 1840, VOL. 7 [] 



to contain sufficient fruitful wood to produce satis- 

 factory crops. 



The best varieties of the different kinds of fruits 

 for pot culture are described in chapters iv. and vii., 

 and in chapter v. the subject of insect pests is dealt 

 with, and the measures to adopt against these and the 

 peach mildew are explained. Chapter vi. consists of 

 a brief calendar of operations in the unheated orchard 

 house for each month of the year, which is sufficient 

 to remind the practitioner of the correct time to carry 

 out the operations which are more fully described in 

 the previous pages. 



In addition to other illustrations, the work is adorned 

 with full-page plates representing pot fruit trees in 

 bearing, being reproductions from photographs 

 obtained in Messrs. Rivers' nursery. These are re- 

 produced in the very best manner, and the printing 

 throughout the book is clear, and the type large and 

 distinct. 



The book has little claim from a literary point of 

 view, but the author has described in plain words a 

 system of cultivating fruit trees in pots which, if faith- 

 fullv followed, will be attended with absolute success. 



R. H. P. 



A TRAVELLER'S COMPANION. 



Stanford's Geological Atlas of Great Britain (based 

 on Reynolds's Geological Atlas). By Horace B. 

 Woodward, F.R.S., F.G.S. Pp. x+140; with 34 

 coloured maps and 16 plates of fossils. (London : 

 E. Stanford, 1904.) Price 12s. 6d. net. 



THIS work is a re-written and revised edition of 

 the well known atlas, which was long a familiar 

 object to the students of shop-windows near Temple 

 Bar, associated as it was with geological diagrams 

 of a highly venerable aspect. It was always attractive 

 by its very neatness and compactness, and has gained 

 further in these respects under Mr. Stanford's care. 

 The maps are printed in colours, and the concluding 

 plates of fossils, reproducing for the most part Mr. 

 Lowry's refined workmanship, are almost as delicate 

 as the engraved originals, which were published in 

 1853. These plates, by the by, are not now arranged 

 so consecutively as could be desired. Mr. H. B. 

 Woodward has brought the text up to a modern stand- 

 point, and we note references to the Pendleside series, 

 to the Mesozoic rocks in a volcanic vent in Arran, and 

 to the occurrence of Pliocene mammalian remains in 

 a fissure in Derbyshire — all matters of very recent 

 history. The Upper Greensand and Gault are de- 

 scribed and mapped together as Selbornian, a com- 

 bination of great stratigraphical convenience, however 

 much it departs from the petrological and geognostic 

 mapping of early days. Here we see at once how the 

 philosophic view of "organised fossils," introduced 

 by William Smith, has made two types of geological 

 maps necessary, one for the students of the earth's 

 history, and one for the engineers, landowners, and 

 agriculturists, to whom Smith made his first appeal. 

 Luckily, in our British Isles, our " drift " maps, on 

 a reasonable scale, go far to satisfy both requirements. 



