BOOK REVIEWS. 



717 



and 'we are by ;no means sorry to have had the opportunity of 

 reading it afresh. It is well printed and nicely got up, and, like 

 nearly all Mr. Weathers' work, the writing is careful, accurate, and 

 to the point. In a book of this kind it is a real pleasure to come 

 across an author who attends strictly to business, and resists the 

 temptation to indulge in the enthusiastic discursiveness which spoils 

 so many of our modern gardening books. The general principles of 

 rose culture have altered little in the ten years that have elapsed 

 since this book was first printed, and the directions given by the 

 author are in most cases as valuable now as they were then. 



The book contains a number of coloured plates of roses which to 

 our taste appear rather hard in outline, and, in some cases, not very 

 typical either of the colour or form of the flowers represented. The 

 best pictures are those of the single roses, some of which are quite good 

 and might be excepted from the above criticism. 



One-third of the book (about 50 pages) is devoted to descriptions 

 of the different varieties of roses grown in gardens, while the remainder 

 deals with cultural directions, exhibiting roses, and selections of 

 roses for particular purposes. 



" The British Rust Fungi (Uredinales) : their Biology and Classi- 

 fication." By W. B. Grove, M.A. 8vo. xii -f- 412 pp. (University 

 Press, Cambridge, 1913.) 145. net. 



Twenty-four years have passed since the late Dr. C. B. Plowright 

 published his notable monograph on the British Uredineae and 

 Ustilagineae, and the time is ripe for a new one. Plowright's book 

 has long been out of print, and much work has been done with this 

 group of fungi in the meanwhile. Eriksson's mycoplasm theory 

 has been brought forward and refuted ; Klebahn's excellent work 

 " Die Wirtswechselnden Rostpilze," appeared in 1904 ; the Sydows' 

 " Monographia Uredinarum " is in course of publication ; smaller 

 papers almost without end have appeared dealing with life-histories 

 and distribution ; while exploration has not been without its reward 

 in this country. In spite of the fact that these fungi are, without 

 exception, parasites, and some of them answerable for serious economic 

 loss in all parts of the world, the discovery of a " new species " for 

 the country's list gives an exciting thrill which only the true naturalist 

 can know, and this thrill still awaits some in our own country. Life- 

 histories of some of our species are still to be discovered, and much 

 interesting and valuable work remains to be done. The author has 

 gathered together the fruits of the labours of others in this volume, 

 and has added to them the results of his own researches, so that he 

 has produced a book valuable alike to the expert and to the amateur 

 who makes a study of this enticing group of fungi. He has brought 

 the nomenclature into line with modern ideas (and incidentally sunk 

 some of the well-known names, such as Puccinia suaveolens and 

 Phragmidium subcorticium) , and has redescribed a large number of 

 species from British specimens, at the same time giving drawings of 



