BOOKS RECEIVED. 



725 



" Tree and Shrub Culture, Pictorfal and Practical." By Walter 

 P. Wright and W. Dallimore. 8vo., 152 pp. (Cassell & Co., London.) Is. 



True to its name, it is most practical and teaches by way of detailed 

 pictures. An invaluable manual for all who want to propagate or plant, 

 to prune or cultivate trees and shrubs, especially flowering shrubs. Not 

 only are we told and shown how to do it, but in almost every case how 

 not to do it also. How we wish, for instance, that everybody who 

 possesses even a single tree which needs pruning would look at figs. 16 

 and 17 and learn how to cut them and how not, and the results of 

 both treatments, for thousands of fine trees are ruined every year by 

 ignorant cutting, and leaving "snags" to carry decay and rottenness 

 into the tree's heart. Then follow lists of trees and shrubs of all manner 

 of kinds for all manner of purposes and all manner of places ; e.g. 

 ornamental foliage, autumn tints, ornamental fruits, climbing, trailing, 

 in shade, for hedges, weeping, &c. Nothing seems to have been un- 

 thought of, and a more useful and instructive shillingsworth it has 

 seldom, if ever, been our lot to come across. It has a few errors doubtless, 

 else would it be more than human, and we cannot help thinking the 

 description of Azara microphylla as "flowers white, in summer," is one 

 of these, for in our own garden in a cold south-eastern county, its flowers 

 are yellow, scented most fragrantly like vanille, and produced in myriads 

 in February and March. 



"The Book of the Lily." By W. Goldring. 8vo., 98 pp. (John 

 Lane, London.) 2s. 6d. net. 



This excellent manual opens with an introductory chapter which far 

 excels the general run of such prologues. It is both highly interesting 

 and highly instructive. Then follows the main body of the book, con- 

 sisting of an alphabetical list of all known garden Lilies, with a description 

 of each and cultural notes. We should like to ask, in passing, why the 

 author (in common, alas ! with many others) always so persistently uses 

 the word "culture " when he means " cultivation." The two words have 

 a very distinct difference of meaning, and if writers will continue to use 

 them as if they were synonymous and interchangeable we shall sooner 

 or later lose the meaning of one or other of them, and the English 

 language be by so much the poorer. But to return. The descriptive and 

 cultural notes are excellent, and by them an amateur can easily make out 

 a list of Lilies suitable for his own particular soil, and decide in what 

 position to plant them. One is also told plainly of difficult subjects, and 

 by that means we know what to avoid as well as what to attempt, and 

 this is a great point. In the description of Lilium Henry i the impres- 

 sion is given that it should be grown "in the conservatory " or " under 

 glass." Of course it can be so grown, but it can be equally well or even 

 better grown out of doors wherever L. Hansoni will grow, as the only 

 difficulty with either is the very early start which they make before we 

 are safe from spring frosts. The finest specimens of L. Henryi we have 

 ever seen have been out of doors. The descriptive notes are followed by 

 a chapter on Hybrid Lilies ; and that by " Lilies in the open-air garden," 

 in which the hardy Lilies are split up into " groups that require different 



