76 



NA TURE 



[May 28, 1908 



do, desire to cultivate the best varieties of roses in tine 

 best manner, and the decorative gardener will find 

 much in this book that will specially appeal to him. 



The illustrations of rose species are reproductions 

 from authentic works on the subject, and in addition 

 to these there are useful designs which illustrate the 

 practical details of budding, pruning, and other 

 operations. We heartily commend this work to the 

 notice of all who aspire to excel in the art of rose- 

 culture. 



(2) This volume is a contribution to the " King's 

 Classics " under the general editorship of Prof. I. Gol- 

 lancz. The first portion, consisting of forty-nine 

 pages, is devoted to an introduction by Mr. Albert 

 Sieveking, who states that the book contains 

 in whole or abstract the Garden Essays of Sir Wil- 

 liam Temple, .'\braham Cowley, Sir Thomas Browne, 

 Andrew Marvell, and John Evelvn, who " in their 

 lives cover the whole of the seventeenth century, and in 

 their writing represent not only some of the best of 

 garden, but of English literature." The introduction 

 is a learned critique of the five writers mentioned, and 

 the views contained therein are likely to commend 

 themselves to the reader, for they are well founded, 

 being evidently based on a conscientious study of each. 

 Incidentally Mr. .Sieveking gives considerable infor- 

 mation upon the history of gardening in Britain, and 

 we commend the reader to study the introduction 

 before reading the selected contributions from the 

 seventeenth-century writers. Of these we regard the 

 prose of Temple as representing a style of literature 

 that is at once pleasing and enlightening. His essay 

 indicates such an appreciation of the art of gardening 

 ;ind intimate knowledge of the best gardens of his 

 day as are certain to appeal to the practical 

 horticulturist. 



Notwithstanding our own advanced methods, we are 

 impressed with the insight into cultural problems 

 Temple displays, although some of his opinions were 

 based upon inaccurate premises. His reasons for re- 

 commending contemporary gentlemen to possess 

 gardens for themselves are unanswerable, but the 

 lofty air in which they were advanced invests them 

 with a certain amount of humour. 



The selection from Cowley includes a letter ad- 

 dressed to Evelyn, and some entertaining verses appre- 

 ciative of the garden. The extracts from Browne's 

 " Garden of Cyrus " and " Plants Mentioned in 

 Scripture " give the reader some idea of the style of 

 the writer, but they are unsatisfying, and it may be 

 regretted the editor was compelled to curtail them so 

 severely. His observations on grafting prove that 

 numerous experiments were made in this art at that 

 early date. Marvell's verses show an inclination t.: 

 criticise gardeners for straining after the unnatural 

 and attempting the mixing of plants by purposeful 

 cross-breeding. 



Passing to Evelyn's letters to Dr. Browne and 

 others, these are all interesting and informative, 

 whilst the abstracts from his famous " Diary " are not 

 only interesting, but they go to show Evelyn's grejt 

 knowledge of gardening subjects, and his unusual 

 powers of observation. 



NO. 2013, VOL. ;S1 



GERMAN SCIENCE MANUALS. 



(i) Bakterien, tmd ihre Bedeutung im praktischcn 

 Leben. By Dr. H. Miehe. Pp. iv-l-141. (Leipzig: 



Quelle and Meyer, 1907.) 

 (2) Lebciisfragen ; die Y or gauge des Stoffu'echsels. 



By Dr. F. B. Ahrens. Pp. vi+153. (Leipzig: 



Quelle and Meyer, 1907.) 

 (i) '"pHIS is an excellent little book. In it Dr. 

 -!■ Miehe expounds the story of the microorgan- 

 isms so clearly tliat an ordinary, intelligent reader 

 will easily and pleasantly acquire, so far as mere 

 reading can supply it, a trustworthy knowledge of all 

 the fundamental facts and theories of bacteriology. 

 The author takes us from the De re rustica of M. 

 Terentius Varro — who seems to have been in the 

 matter of microbes much what Democritus was in 

 respect to atoms — to the " denkwiirdigen Brief " of 

 van Leeuwenhoek to the Royal Society in 1683, 

 wherein the famous observer expresses his naive 

 astonishment at certain frolicsome " animalcula " lu 

 had discovered in the human mouth ; and our guide 

 does not leave us until we have seen at least the out- 

 standing features of the work of Jenner, Lister, 

 Pasteur, Koch, Eberth, Winogradsky, and the manv 

 others whose labours have, each in its degree, helped 

 to illuminate tlie dim but fascinating pathways which 

 lead into the realms of the infinitely little. He show s 

 us the microorganisms as helpers and as enemie-, 

 their modes of increase, and the methods of their 

 destruction ; their distribution on land and sea ; and 

 the problems of philosophy and of practical life to 

 which the study of these " little fleas " leads. 



The book strikes just the happy mean required in a 

 work of this kind. It avoids the trivialities which 

 often embellish expositions of " popular " science. It 

 states the problems clearly, and discusses them 

 soberly, yet withal is no dull and ponderous disquisi- 

 tion ; in style it is rather Gallic than Teutonic. 



There is a glossary of such terms as are unusual 

 and hot sufficiently explained in the text. Given on 

 the part of the reader a very small modicum of scien- 

 tific knowledge, no mystery of the microorganism 

 dealt with in the book need remain a mystery for lack 

 of simple and lucid exposition. 



(2) The " Lebensfragen " contains a number of 

 articles explaining the principles of nutrition and the 

 origin and method of preparation of the chief food- 

 stuffs. To persons who feel more than a passing 

 curiosity about the production of sugar, butter, beer, 

 vine, tea, and so forth, or about the chemical com- 

 position of these substances, the descriptions so far 

 as they go may be recommended as trustworthy. Bur 

 they do not go far enough for the technical reader, and 

 are not intended for him. In each case a sketch of 

 the source, manufacture, and chief chemical char- 

 acters of the article is given, together with any salient 

 facts of general or historical interest connected there- 

 with. In the chapter on sugar, there is, for example, 

 a description of how the beet-sugar industry was 

 fostered in France by Napoleon. There are also 

 chapters on enzyme action and on the production and 

 application of artificial fertilisers. 



