CURRENT LITERATURE. 
BOOK REVIEWS. 
Bailey’s Cyclopedia." 
In America there has been but one cyclopedic work on _ horticulture, 
viz., Henderson’s Handbook of Plants, published in 1881, with a second edi- 
tion in 1890, each edition in one volume. Accordingly, botanists, as well as 
horticulturists, have been looking forward with eagerness to the appearance 
of Professor Bailey’s great work. The opening paragraph of the preface 
tersely states its purpose: “It is the purpose of this work to make a com- 
plete record of the status of North American horticulture as it exists at the 
close of the nineteenth century. The work discusses the cultivation of fruits, 
flowers, and garden vegetables, describes all the species which are known to 
be in the horticultural trade, outlines the horticultural possibilities of the 
various states, territories, and provinces, presents biographies of those per- 
sons, not living, who have contributed most to the horticultural progress of 
North America, and indicates the leading monographic works relating to the 
various subjects.” 
Only Professor Bailey would have undertaken this tremendous task. It 
is probable that no one, excepting the editor and his immediate associates, 
can appreciate the amount of detail which such a work must involve. The 
editor has set down some of the items as follows: “ More than 10,000 species 
of plants in cultivation ; almost every important species phenomenally varia- 
ble, sometimes running into thousands of forms; every species requiring 1! 
own soil and treatment, and sometimes even minor varieties differing in these 
requirements ; limitless differences in soils and climates in our great domain, 
every difference modifying the plants or their requirements ; a different ideal 
in plant-growing and plant-breeding in the mind of every good plant-grower 
as many different kinds of experience as there are men; many of these men 
not facile with the pen, although full of wholesome fact and experience; the 
species described in books which deal with the four corners of the earth; 
very few botanists who have given attention to the domestic flora.” The. 
editor has said that ‘‘the most difficult part of the making of a cyclope 
dia is to project it. Its scope and point of view must be determined before 
a stroke of actual work is done. This much done, the remainder is labor 
* BAILEY, L.. H.—Cyclopedia of American Horticulture. Assisted by Wilhelm 
Miller and many expert cultivators and botanists. Illustrated with over 2000 original 
engravings. In 4 vols. Vol. I. A-D. 4to. pp. xxii-+ 509. New York : The Mar 
millan Company. 1900. $5.00. 
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