710 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



gifted member. The whole work had been so completely overhauled when 

 the second edition was called for three years ago that there remained 

 comparatively little room for further revision in the present issue. The 

 reader may, however, rest assured that whatever alterations were required 

 in order to keep the subject-matter abreast of the times have been carried 

 out, for Mr. Foster- Melliar was not only a fascinating writer on his 

 favourite subject, but also a most conscientious and painstaking one. 

 Although all phases of Rose culture are dealt with, the author's keenest 

 sympathies centred in the production of fine blooms, rather than in the 

 employment of the Ros& as a decorative plant. His views on this point 

 are concisely expressed in the introductory chapter, where he says : " In 

 my estimation the value of the Rose is in the glory of its individual 

 flowers, and in these pages at least the idea is not the Rose for the garden, 

 but the garden for the Rose." Nearly one third of the volume is 

 devoted to what he quaintly terms the " Manners and Customs " of a large 

 number of the best Roses now in cultivation. The descriptions given of 

 the different varieties show clearly what an intimate knowledge and keen 

 perception the author had of the distinctive characteristics of each Rose 

 which he describes. The cultural directions in preceding chapters are also 

 in the same way the result of his own personal experience and observation. 

 Indeed, there is no operation treated of, from hacking briar stocks out of 

 the hedges to staging a winning stand of beautiful Tea Roses at an 

 exhibition that he has not carried out with his own hands. 



" On the Relation of Phyllotaxis to Mechanical Laws," Part III. By 

 A. II. Church. 8vo., pp. 215-353. (Williams & Norgate, London.) 5s. 



This third and last part deals with secondary growth-phenomena and 

 mathematical notes on log- spiral systems and their application to 

 phyllotaxis phenomena. The author emphasises the necessity of studying 

 the embryonic development of phyllotaxis. Instead of referring systems 

 to genetic spirals indicated by the usual series ^, ?, &c, he adopts the 

 formulae (3 + 5), (5 -f 8), &c. Some little difficulty follows, because in 

 some cases it is not clear which should be preferred ; thus (3 + 5) would 

 do as well as (5 + 8) for the outermost spirals of Semper vivum (fig. 83, 

 p. 244). The author then considers the results of contact-pressures, 

 eccentric growths, bilaterality of appendages, Sec. 



The basis of the interpretations is the assumed log-spirals of the 

 parastichies in the bud. He observes that "any attempt to indicate a 

 ratio introduces a source of error." He apparently overlooks the fact 

 that the fraction represents the number of leaves (denominator) and 

 number of coils in a cycle (numerator) ; the fraction then indicates the 

 angular divergence between any successive leaves on the spiral line, e.g. 

 | = 144° &c. 



He adds : " Still greater is the error of the old rotation, which states 

 that 5 and 8 parastichies imply an , S . T genetic spiral with orthostichies as 

 straight lines." But straight or strictly vertical orthostichies only 

 occur witli J,, .p 1, as the subsequent denominators are not measures of 

 180°. The old rotation fully recognises this fact. Alluding to the fact 

 that the series \, \, g, &c. represent the successive convergents of the 



