January 2, 1895.] 



Garden and Forest. 



duced, a period of scarcity may arise with a suddenness of 

 wliicli tlie Board of Trade Returns need not be expected to give 

 any indication. 



The desirability of tlie state purcliasingland suitable for for- 

 estry as a means of providing- eniployment in rural districts 

 was strongly insisted upon. Sylvicultural operations, and the 

 transport of timber to tiie nearest sawmill or railway station, 

 necessitate the employment of approximately one forester or 

 other workman to iifty acres of wood, while the conversion 

 and vitilization of the timber employ an even larger amount of 

 labor. It was pointed out that, at a low estimate, hill pastoral 

 farms are attended to by one shepherd to a thousand acres, so 

 that forestry can find remunerative employment for at least 

 twenty times as many laborers as pastoral farming. 



London. O. A., 



Recent Publications. 



Hand-list of Trees and Shrubs grown in tlie Arboretum of 

 the Rdyal Gardens in Keiv. Number i, Polypetalae. 



This is the first part of a caialogue of the woody plants 

 grown in the National Herbarium at Kew, from the pen of 

 Mr. George Nicholson, the curator of that establishment, to 

 which the lovers and cultivators of trees have been look- 

 ing forward for several years in eager expectancy, realizing 

 that his precise knowledge and the great opportunities of 

 an establishment like Kew would enable him to produce 

 a work superior in scope and more accurate in detail than 

 any of its predecessors in this particular field. 



In Mr. Nicholson's list the families and genera are ar- 

 ranged according to the General Plantaruin of Bentham & 

 Hooker, and the species under each genus are arranged 

 alphabetically. The species, therefore, are not grouped in 

 sections or other subdivisions, and no characters make it 

 possible for a person cultivating a plant under any given 

 name to verify tlie correctness of that name by the aid of 

 this catalogue. In some cases, however, this is made pos- 

 sible by a reference to published figures, although no sys- 

 tem of the citation of figures appears to have been adopted 

 or followed. The figure, for example, of Magnolia hypo- 

 leuca in this journal is quoted, while there is no reference 

 to our figure or to any other of Magnolia Kobus ; there is 

 no reference made to our figure of Acer Nikoense, or even 

 to the earlier one in the Garlenflora. Nor is there any ref- 

 erence to a figure of Prunus AUeghanensis, although it has 

 been figured in the pages of this journal and in Sargent's 

 Silva of North America, a work which is often referred to 

 by Mr. Nicholson, although without much system, as all 

 reference to it under the different species of American trees 

 is often omitted. As was to have been expected, for Kevi' 

 does not occupy itself with questions of priority of nomen- 

 clature, no attention is given in this work to the use of the 

 first published name of a species ; and this catalogue ad- 

 mirably illustrates how unsatisfactory the system is which 

 permits an author to select or reject a name according to 

 ills individual fancy, without reference to priority of nomen- 

 clature. Usually Mr. Nicholson takes the best-known 

 name, but not always, so that here is that inevitable mixing 

 up again of systems which always follows the go-as-you- 

 please plan and always results in additional confusion of 

 names. 



The valuable part of this publication, and the value of 

 this cannot be overestimated, is the synonymy which has 

 been carefully worked out and includes under each species, 

 in addition to published synonyms, a list of nurserymen, 

 and gardeners' names, vv^hich have always been the source 

 of the greatest confusion to students of cultivated trees. 

 The value of this feature is very much increased by an 

 excellent index of the orders, genera, species and synonyms. 



they both belong to the class of what may be called out- 

 door books, which form so considerable a fraction of cur- 

 rent literature on both sides of the Atlantic, but because 

 they are identical in purpose. This purpose is to furnish 

 to a certain extent a guide for the lovers of nature, espe- 

 cially for those who live in towns, which will to some 

 extent help them wheir they visit the country by telling 

 them what they may expect to find. The American book 

 is narrower in its range than the other, and is confined 

 chiefly to making a record of the succession of flowers, 

 while its English companion, besides giving a current 

 account of what is going on in the plant-world, is con- 

 cerned with all sorts of wild life — birds and beasts and 

 creeping things — which one would encounter in a rural 

 walk. 



Through Glade and Mead is a stout volume of three hun- 

 dred odd pages, which, after a brief introduction, describes 

 the salient features of the vegetation of Worcester County, 

 Massachusetts, as they appear month after month from 

 early March till late September. It is not possible in the 

 compass of a hundred pages to write with much detail of 

 many plants, but those which would naturally catch the 

 eye are generally selected, the brief notes about them are 

 accurate, and while there is no effort at picturesque 

 description the work is characterized by good taste and 

 some literary skill. The second part of the book is essen- 

 tially the record of a single year, in which the dates of 

 the appearance of the wild flowers are given for the year 

 1S82. This* is taken as a representative season. Begin- 

 ning with the Skunk Cabbage, on the third of April, the 

 record continues day by day until the second of October, 

 when the Witch-hazel and Fringed Gentian were in flower, 

 and includes 553 plants. The book has two appendices, 

 one of which is a catalogue of the phsenogamous and 

 vascular cryptogamous plants of Worcester County, Massa- 

 chusetts, and in addition to this flora there is a list of about 

 two hundred trees, shrubs and evergreen flowering plants, 

 which are growing without cultivation in the same county. 

 Among the half-tone illustrations are good pictures of Le- 

 dum latifolium,, Andromeda polifolia, the pink Azalea, 

 Rhodora and Leucothoe racemosa. Five hundred and 

 thirty-five copies of the book have been printed, and of 

 these thirty-five are on large paper, numbered and signed. 



This volume of llie Country Month by Month includes 

 the record of March, April and May, and will be followed 

 by three others to complete the year, and it will very suc- 

 cessfully accomplish for English readers what Mr. Jack- 

 son's book does for wanderers in INIassachusetts' highways 

 and byways. The very titles to some of the chapters which 

 relate to plant-life, such as By Bank and Copse, In the 

 River Meads, On a Chalk Sub-soil, On Wooded Hills, 

 Among Sand Hills and Firs, By Ruined Walls, are alluring, 

 and happily suggest the kind of paths which are to be fol- 

 lowed in the various spring ramtiles. Nor will the reader 

 be disappointed as he follows his guide. Indeed, although 

 it is among Daffodils and Cowslips and Wild Hyacinths 

 that we are invited to walk, the American reader will find 

 these strolls quite as interesting as if they led among his 

 native flowers, while the foreign birds and butterflies, the 

 furry creatures which hide in the copses, and even the 

 Old World snakes and reptiles have a certain fascination 

 which shows that books of this kind have an interest for 

 many who do their botanizing indoors, and who would 

 rather read about insects than to chase them with a net. 

 To all such closet naturalists, as well as those who prefer 

 to observe for themselves, this book can be heartily com- 

 mended as one of the very best of its useful class. 



Through Glade and Mead : A Contribution to Local 

 Natural History. By Joseph Jackson. Worcester, Massa- 

 chusetts. 



■ The Count/y Month by Month. Spring. By J. A. Owen 

 and Professor C. S. Boulger. London : Bliss, Sands & 

 Foster. 



We place these two books together, not only because 



Notes. 



Branches of Tangerine oranges, each bearing a dozen fruits 

 in a setting of dark glossy foliage, now make one of tlie most 

 attractive features in the fruit-stores. The best of them come 

 from glass houses in southern New Jersey, and sell at the rate 

 of twenty-five cents for each orange. 



