1897] CURRENT LITERATURE 469 
the work, and carefully points out the difficulties that must be surmounted. 
Unquestionably this is the most comprehensive and valuable book that has 
thus far been published on the subject, and no one who is engaged in the 
forcing of vegetables, or who contemplates engaging in it, can afford to be 
without it. 
A considerable part of the subject matter of this book has already been 
published by the author or his assistants through the bulletins of Cornell 
University, and the author has quoted rather freely from other sources. But 
the parts are so well adjusted, and so well supplemented by the author’s 
hitherto unpublished experiences and observations that the somewhat trag- 
mentary structure of the book does not appear, and the freshness, clearness 
and grace that characterize all of Professor Bailey’s writings abound through- 
out. If his sentences are sometimes less polished than we might expect 
from so learned a writer, the intensity of their expression and the fertility of 
the thoughts they nis sib: render them most pleasant and profitable 
reading.—E. S. Gr 
Botanists and gardeners everywhere will greet with pleasure Professor 
Schumann's Monographia Cactacearum, the first part of which has just 
appeared. An inspection of this justifies the assertion that expectation will 
not be disappointed; for the work promises to satisfy in a large measure 
the long felt needs not only of botanists, but also of cactus growers generally, 
amateur and professional. The author has studied the group during the 
greater part of eight years, visiting the principal botanic gardens of Europe, 
constantly examining growing plants in all stages, and bringing together in 
Berlin an unsurpassed collection of living and dried material. Certainly the 
Botanic Garden in Berlin, with its cactus prestige of nearly a century, fur- 
nishes rare opportunities for such a comprehensive study as Professor Schu- 
mann has undertaken, for in this, as in no other family of plants, the element 
of culture tradition enters as an exceedingly important factor. It happens 
in numerous species of all genera that existing individuals can with absolute 
Certainty be referred back through years of culture to their originals, consti- - 
tuting a thread of identity which would otherwise long since have been quite — 
obliterated. It has thus been possible in the present work to rescue many of 
_ the older species from oblivion, not, however, without that ever present ele- 
