258 JOUKNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



climbers, bulbs, roses, chrysanthemums, orchids, ferns, greenhouse 

 plants, shrubs, tic, of the making of lawns, and rock-gardens. But, find- 

 ing that Mr. Cook was thoroughly in his element amongst flowers, we 

 turned to the fruit and vegetable sections to try to find some faults, and 

 we can only confess our utter failure. These sections are as good, and 

 clear, and helpful as the others. The book is full of excellent diagrams 

 and full-sized plates, which have been so wisely chosen that they not only 

 brighjten up the pages but to no inconsiderable extent add to the book's 

 teaching power. We commend the book most thoroughly. We have only 

 found one fault : would that Mr. Cook would use the word " variety " 

 and not " kind." There are multitudes of varieties of almost all garden 

 flowers, fruits, and vegetables, but there are comparatively very few kinds 

 indeed, and it would have been well to accustom the beginner to the 

 distinction between the two words. This is, however, perhaps somewhat 

 hypercritical, and anyone who wishes to give a friend a welcome book 

 for the garden cannot do better than invest his half-guinea here. 



" The Book of Gardening." Edited by W. D. Drury. (L. Upcott Gill, 

 Strand, London.) I65. 8vo. 



A book of 1,200 pages ! It would have been far better in two volumes. 

 1,200 pages is too much to hold in the hand without actual pain. The 

 paper and print are excellent, and the illustrations many and pleasing. 

 It opens with a very useful chapter on elementary landscape gardening, 

 and ends with an equally useful one on manures, which, if it is not quite 

 so elementary, is at the same time perfectly understandable by anyone ; 

 in fact, we are inclined to consider this chapter on manures as the most 

 valuable one in the whole book. The other chapters treat of all the 

 ordinary classes of flowers, of hardy and rock plants, of bulbs, shrubs, 

 orchids, ferns, greenhouse and aquatic plants, fruit, and vegetables. 

 There is a chapter on propagation, another on forcing, another on diseases 

 and pests. We are sorry to find even twelve valuable pages given up to 

 the abominable system of "Carpet Bedding"; we had hoped the taste 

 for it had quite died out and been decently buried in the last century. 

 However, in some remote corner of earth's surface there may survive 

 devotees of this iniquitous system, and, if they should be induced hereby 

 to buy the book, it will (unconsciously it maybe) lead them on to better 

 things, as undoubtedly the book is a good and useful book. 



" Open-Air Gardening." Edited by W. D. Drury. (L. Upcott Gill, 

 Strand, London.) 75. Gd. 



This is an abridgment of the last-named book, reducing it from 1,200 

 to 400 pages. A good deal seems to have been lost in the abridgment ; 

 notably the whole of the valuable chapter on Manures is missing. We 

 prefer the unabridged. 



" The Story of Wild Flowers." By the Rev. Professor George 

 Henslow, V.M.H. (G eorge Newnes, Ltd., London.) Is. 



. Professor Henslow is always int3resting, and no one need grudge a 

 shilling for this most instructive little book of 250 pages. The reader 



