BOOK REVIEWS. 



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of wishing it a large circulation, long life, and prosperity. The first part com- 

 prises 64 pp. large octavo, it is well and clearly printed, well illustrated, and 

 has pages with ample margins. The contents are varied and include reprints 

 of some important papers published elsewhere, reviews and abstracts as well as 

 original papers. 



We hope the re-printing of papers already published in accessible works will 

 not be a main feature of the Journal, for there should be ample original matter 

 from the many amateur and professional fruit-growers of the country to provide 

 an excellent quarterly Journal of this alone. The frontispiece of the first number 

 gives an excellent representation of the apple "Maidstone Favourite," and the 

 description which accompanies it gives, as all fruit descriptions should do, full 

 notes on the growth of the tree. 



" Days in My Garden." By Ernest Ballard. Cr. 4to. xvi + 195 pp. 

 (University Press, Cambridge, 191 9.) £1 is. net. 



Do not think that this tells of the toil and labour of digging, of weary hours 

 of work with the waterpot, of the planting of potatos and the clearing away of 

 cabbage stumps, or even of pricking out and stoking. These things doubtless, and 

 many another, came in the author's days, but he was out to see Nature's work first 

 and to appreciate it, not only under the guidance of man's hand but in wild 

 Nature's own domain, by the stream, on the hillside, and in the valley. There, 

 and here, and everywhere about, he saw things of beauty through the year and 

 tells of what he saw as the months went by, and some of the thoughts they 

 evoked, in pleasantly written passages illustrated by beautiful and beautifully 

 reproduced photographs. 



The beautifully clear type and lavishly ample margins of the book will appeal 

 to the book-lover — who may nevertheless complain of the heavy glazed paper, 

 but who assuredly will not complain of the illustrations or of the text. It would 

 make a welcome gift to the book-lover who is also a Nature-lover. 



" Problems of Fertilization." By F. R. Lillie. 8vo. xii -f- 270 pp. 

 (University Press, Chicago, 1919.) fi.75 net. 



The main facts of fertilization are, of course, matters of common knowledge, 

 but there remain many unsolved and little investigated problems concerning the 

 details of the process. This excellent little book gives a clear statement of 

 them and a lucid account of investigations into them so far as they have yet 

 gone, most of the illustrations being drawn from the animal kingdom. The 

 grouping of the matter is as follows : " The History of the Fertilization Problem ;" 

 " The Place of Fertilization in the Life-History ; " " The Morphology of 

 Fertilization ; " " The Physiology of the Spermatozoon ; " " The Physiology 

 of Fertilization ; " " The Problem of Specifity in Fertilization." 



The book, which is one of the University of Chicago Science Series, is written 

 not only for the specialist but also in such a way that the educated, without 

 special knowledge, may read and comprehend. 



" Storing Vegetables and Fruits : with chapters on drying in the oven and 

 by the kitchen fire." By H.Cowley. 8vo. 32 pp. (" Country Life," London, 

 1918.) Paper covers, g"d. net. 



This exceedingly useful little book contains not only advice upon the methods 

 of storing all sorts of vegetables and fruits that are commonly grown in this 

 country, but also recipes for the cooking of several of them. Particularly 

 interesting is the account of the Burmese method of cooking beans, a method 

 which should be tried by all who use these valuable vegetables. Only one re- 

 mark in the book have we noticed from which we dissent, that to the effect that 

 the Climbing Bean ' Tender and True ' is nearly equivalent to the much-grown 

 (and excellent) Continental ' Soissons a rames.' Except that they are both 

 climbers, and both good to use as haricots, they are as unlike as French beans 

 can well be. (See Report on Climbing Beans at Wisley, Journal, R.H.S. xliv. 

 P- 95-) 



" Fossil Plants." By Prof. A. C. Seward. Vol. iv. 8vo. xvi + 543 pp. 

 (University Press, Cambridge, 1919.) 21s. net. 



Prof. Seward completes in this, his fourth volume, his interesting and valuable 

 account of the plants the remains of which are found in a fossil form in various 

 parts of the world, and brings the story up to include not a few of the vestiges 

 of that ancient vegetation that have survived the slow changes and the cataclysms 

 of the past until to-day. He is thus on ground more familiar to the ordinary 



