716 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY- 



though not alpine, are yet particularly suitable for cultivation in rock 

 gardens — have been included. Although Mr. Stuart Thompson is a 

 botanist, and his descriptions are botanical descriptions, he is also a 

 gardener and a flower lover, and he has added to his botanical descrip- 

 tions notes on the garden value of many of the species, cultural hints, 

 and such other general information as his wide knowledge of the Alps 

 and of alpine plants has suggested. Such notes add vastly to the value 

 and interest of the book. It is all very well, and of course quite 

 essential, to be told of Ononis cenisia that the " calyx lobes are 

 scarcely longer than the tube. Pod 10*12 mm. by 6 mm., at least twice 

 the length of the calyx ; pubescent, glandular." But it is delightful 

 to be told also that " at Mont Cenis it grows on the plateau behind the 

 Hospice, and appears very local in the immediate district. . . . This 

 beautiful little Rest-harrow should be introduced into English rock 

 gardens, for it is the best of the dwarf species and strictly Alpine. 

 It should be planted in poor but deep, well drained, stony soil, in 

 full sun." Part I. deals with Alpine Plants in their Native Haunts ; 

 the Cultivation of Alpine Plants ; and Collecting and Pressing 

 Alpine Flowers. 



Although " Alpine Plants of Europe " would be of little use to the 

 serious botanist working on the alpine flora of Europe as a whole, 

 it is exactly the book which the gardener-tourist has long needed, 

 and from that standpoint it is excellent. After the surfeit of chatty, 

 facetious, and often misleading books that have been written round 

 the subject of alpine plants during the last few years, Mr. Stuart 

 Thompson's careful and authoritative piece of work is doubly 

 welcome. 



" Beautiful Roses for Garden and Greenhouse." By John 

 Weathers. 8vo., 152 pp. With coloured plates by John Allen. 

 (Simpkin, Marshall, London, 1913.) is. 6d. net. 



This little book of some 150 pages is a reprint of that published 

 about ten years ago, so far as we have been able to compare the reprint 

 with the original volume, without alteration. 



The result is that the varieties recommended are in some cases 

 rather out of date ; for instance, of the 82 Hybrid Perpetuals selected it 

 is doubtful whether more than thirty or so are now much grown in our 

 gardens, and in the treatment of fungoid diseases there is no mention 

 of the sprays and washes now generally in use. In fact the only sprays 

 we have noticed in the book are quassia and tobacco extract for insect 

 pests (both still excellent, but improved by an admixture with soft 

 soap), and for fungoid disease spraying with potassium sulphide, which 

 is to be used at the rate of 1 oz. of the sulphide to 2 \ gallons of water, 

 a proportion now generally considered by rosarians to be rather too 

 strong, particularly where the foliage is young, and it is thought far 

 safer to employ 1 oz. to 10 gallons for early work and 1 oz. to 5 gallons 

 later in the year. 



There is, however, much to be said in favour of this little book, 



