CURRENT LITERATRUE. 
BOOK REVIEWS. 
Guide to garden plants." 
THE intention of the writer has been to produce a book which will be of 
use to amateurs and also to those engaged professionally in horticulture. It 
deals with the description, cultivation, and propagation of the better known 
flowers, fruits, and vegetables suitable for growing in the British Islands. The 
subjects discussed are of such a comprehensive nature that it is quite impos- 
sible to expect that even a few of them should be treated in an exhaustive 
way within the limits of a single volume. A commendable feature— absent 
plants, which is given in such a manner as to be readily understood by those 
not versed in technical language. The chapter on the description, cultiva- 
tion, and propagation of the hardy fruits best suited to the climate of Great 
Britain gives little help to those in quest of such information in this country. 
Nearly a thousand pages are devoted to the description of the common plants 
in cultivation. The plants are arranged in their natural orders, cultural 
details are given in the majority of cases, and in this part of the work there 
is a similarity to what is found in the dictionaries of Paxton, Johnson, Nichol- 
son, and Bailey. There is, of course, much in the book which will interest 
merican readers; but, having been written for garden lovers in another 
part of the world, it would be a dangerous one to put in the hands of the 
uninitiated in this country, where not only the cultural details differ, but the 
species and varieties recommended as best would, in very many instances, be 
entirely unsuited to the conditions existing here— G. W. OLIVER. 
NOTES FOR STUDENTS. 
ROSTOWZEW recommends two methods for drying plants which blacken 
readily? One consists in using between the plants single layers of absorb- 
ent cotton 2™ thick, covered with tough tissue paper, in a wire press, placed 
ina warm place. The other uses a perforate metal cylinder, to be covered 
with plants between sheets of filter paper held in place by a muslin jacket. 
The cylinder is covered with a lid and placed overalamp. The plants dry 
in an hour or so.—C. R. B. 
*WEATHERS,JOHN: A practical guide to garden plants and best kinds of fruits 
and vegetables. Large 8vo. pp. xiitz192. figs. 763. New York City: Longmans, 
Green, & Co., 1901. ck 
? Flora 88: 473-478. IgoI. 
306 [OCTOBER 
