384 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



in these days of specialization when the larger pictures are liable to be forgotten 

 in the absorbing interest of detail. 



The pictorial illustrations have been chosen chiefly to show points which 

 cannot be so well expressed in words, and with special reference to good com- 

 position in various modes. The subjects chosen are generally familiar, but 

 serve their purpose the more efficiently on that account. We are very anxious, 

 however, to see a representative selection of examples of the best work in the 

 great American gardens — such as writers on gardening in this country are so 

 freely permitted to utilize. 



" Gardens of Celebrities, and Celebrated Gardens, in and around London." 

 By Jessie MacGregor. Large 8vo. 326 pp. (Hutchinson, London, 1919.) 

 255. net. 



A delightful book which, ostensibly describing the gardens of London and 

 Greater London, in reality leads the reader along the paths of history, poetry, 

 and anecdote ; and delicate portraying of the charm of old-fashioned gardens and 

 stately homes enlivens the route, while historical details are brought out in most 

 interesting fashion. It is difficult to realize that Marlborough House now stands 

 on the grounds formerly belonging to a religious house — with a hospital for 

 " fourteen deserving maidens, all lepers/' where St. James's Palace now stands. 

 These were turned out by Henry VIII, who made the land into a nursery for deer, 

 Marlborough House itself being built by Christopher Wren about 1710. 



Lambeth and Fulham Palaces, Sion and Holland House, all are described 

 with much charm ; and information never before given in so readable a form 

 will make this book welcomed by all classes of readers, while the houses of the 

 great nobles are pictured in all their glory the smaller houses (such as Hogarth 

 House and Walpole House) have their portraits skilfully painted in pencil, words, 

 and brush. 



The paintings of " The Tudor Gateway, Lambeth," and the " Inigo Jones 

 Gateway, Chiswick," are perhaps the most successful in the collection, the 

 others being rather deficient in the cool tones of blue and grey so needed in garden 

 paintings. Doubtless the colour process used is responsible for this. 



" Beautiful Flowering Shrubs." By G. Clarke Nuttall, with col. ill. by 

 H. Essenhigh Corke. Large 8 vo. xii 4- 280 pp. ( Waverley Book Co., London, 

 [1920]). 405. net. 



It is true, unaccountably true, that flowering shrubs have not yet come to 

 their own in the garden. Such a spring as the present has emphasized their 

 value, even to those who thought they knew it. Sweet scent, bright flower, 

 beautiful habit, pleasant autumn tints, winter pictures, relief from sameness if 

 wisely used, ail these we may get from flowering shrubs. A good number 

 of them, mainly the better known and well-proved varieties, are dealt with in 

 this volume, and forty pictures from colour-photographs are included, and round 

 them the interesting, instructive, and accurate text is gathered. The type is 

 excellent, the proof-reading generally good — a few names are misspelt (e.g., 

 more than once the misnomer Rhododendron fl avium occurs, once Embothreum, 

 two or three times Grevillia, and so on) — the format pleasing, the index full, 

 and the illustrations (like the price) above the average of what one expects to 

 find in a popular book. It is one we can heartily commend to the owner of 

 the medium garden. 



" Beginner's Bee Book." By F. C. Pellett. 8vo. 179 pp. (Lippincott, 

 Philadelphia and London, 1919.) 5s. net. 



A delightful book, with no long tedious chapters of the anatomy of bees, but 

 full of practical hints and methods telling of the attraction of bee-keeping, how to 

 begin, and how to extend. Where poultry have to be fed every day at great cost, 

 bees require feeding very rarely if at all, while one hive will produce up to 100 lb. of 

 surplus honey. The brief life history of bees, of queens, workers, and drones, is 

 so clearly written that all is easy to apprehend. The method followed in the 

 States, of tiering up bars for extraction and sections for comb honey, is the 

 same as beekeepers follow in this country, always adding the new comb beneath 

 the partly full and immediately over the brood nest. How to produce a surplus 

 and to sell it in the best market is taught in this " Beginner's Bee Book." 



The chapters on food for bees shows difference from this country in that the 

 author writes of superiority of sweet clover (Medicago) and alfalfa (Lucerne). In 

 this country these crops are cut in upland pastures, and all stock feeds them off ; 

 they cannot flower again, so are useless as a honey crop ; as forage crop they must 

 be cut early or they become sticky and hard. There is too little good land here 

 to leave them entirely for bees ; we have tried it. 



