TROPICAL AGRICULTURE.—THE FOOD OF PLANTS. 221 
— Tropical Agriculture. By A. H. Atrorp Nicuoxts, M.D., F.L.S., 
&c. Macmillan & Co. 1892. 6s. 
The Food of Plants. By A. P. Laurre. Macmillan & Co. Is. 
Tue first book i “ the result of a premium offered by the Jamaica 
Government for the best treatise on the art of agriculture a 
practised in the West Indies. While scuttle at home have 
their text-books—more or less trustworthy—the large number of 
native country, have had up to the present time no man 
their guidance: and the present volume admirably nig the 
cise ome 
series of its woo cuts. he firs pa consists of an intro- 
remarkably full manner, con ing with soils, manures, and 
closing i the physiology of “the ae methods used by the 
farmer, tillage operations, pruning, grafting, &c. All these subjects 
are discucbod without those inaccuracies Sato = the effort to 
use popular language sometimes leads scientific m 
The latter half o the volume is devoted to the more detailed 
consideration of the most important crops grown in tropical coun- 
wi 
practical portions. Many Englishmen in the tropics will be grateful 
o Dr. Nicholls for the way in which he conveys information of a 
strictly scientific character in an eminently readable form, while 
ee well to the fore the motto under which his prize essay 
inally appeared, ‘“ Respice finem.”’ 
oie * ie ’s little book, which contains only 63 small pages 
and a short appendix, cannot be said to be too abstruse, and while 
striving to be aati simple and elementary, it is indeed possible 
to go too far ; first chapters of this little volume give one 
the impression that Loonie of two syllables should have been used. 
_ seems hardly nec for a ate a of agricultural chemistry to 
the experiment tof cutting off the = of a plant and observing 
that it will wither and die (see Experiment I.). 
The book consists of a series of oxpasiaonts with the deductions 
o be drawn from each, and the writer certainly has been successful 
in aie | the elements of phygiotog) in very plain and simple 
e. 
arge 
pleasant to read. Thec . oe of the book lies in its brevity, 
bu e author aes o be used simultaneously with 
porcaibaeal text-books, ater this j is of not so much consequence. 
