BOOKS RECEIVED. 



603 



gathered mostly from American sources, as the subject is still but very 

 little practised in this country, and requires attention at the hands of our 

 orchard and market growers. The illustrations are as good as any illus- 

 trations of fruits in black and white can be, which for purposes of 

 identification is not of any great assistance. We are sorry to find 

 * Pitmaston Duchess ' still included in the first select list of " High 

 Quality " Pears. It throws suspicion on its associates, which, by the way, 

 is not wholly misplaced as regards ' Buerre Diel ' and ' Beurre Ranee.' 

 Again, whether fig. 898 be ' Josephine de Malines ' (as we suspect) or not, 

 it certainly is not the true ' Knight's Monarch.' These, however, are 

 small points to notice in a book of such general excellence. 



The Book of Old-Fashioned Flowers." By Harry Roberts. (.John 

 Lane, London.) 2s. 6'7. Crown 8vo. 



This, the fourth of the Practical Handbook Series, is a distinctly more 

 literary work than its predecessors, though none the less practical. Its 

 predecessors contain vast masses of useful and oft-needed knowledge— so 

 too does this ; but they administer it somewhat in the way recipes are given 

 us in cookery books, this in the way of powders in jam or in figs ; in fact, 

 one would take up this volume and read a few chapters for sheer pleasure 

 in reading, and learn without being conscious thereof. The others one 

 would only go to when one definitely wanted to learn on some particular 

 point. It is hopeless to attempt to "review" such a book. It wants 

 reading from one end to the other, and we are confident that no one Avho 

 buys it will ever regret it. Alas ! if it had but an index how good it 

 would be ! In these hurrysome days indices are no longer luxuries for the 

 idle, but necessaries for the hard- worked. 



"Hardy Border Flowers." By Walter Smyth. (William Mullan, 

 Belfast.) Is. 8vo. 



A compact little treatise on the making of hardy flow^er borders and 

 rock gardens, which, if it does not contain anything very new, is at least 

 a useful summary of the old. The lists of flowers observed in bloom in 

 each month of the year is, in our opinion, the best part of this pamphlet, 

 and the addition at the end of blank pages upon which to make one's 

 own notes is a distinctly useful appendage. 



