BOOK REVIEWS. 



103 



smoky fog-laden districts. Altogether there are twenty chapters dealing 

 with the following subjects : — "Limitations and Possibilities," "Laying- 

 out the Garden," " Preparing the Borders," " The Mixed Flower Border," 

 " Roses," " Carnations and Pinks," "Lilies," " Bulbous Plants," " Annual 

 Flowers," "Climbing Plants," "Shrubs," "Plants in Tubs," "Fruit 

 Trees," "Plants in Rooms and Bulbs in Fibre," "Roof Gardening," 

 " The Warm Greenhouse," "The Cool Greenhouse," "The Cold Green- 

 house and Frame," "Window Gardening," "Pages from a Gardener's 

 Note-book," and these are followed by a good index. We are pleased to 

 see the author gives each kind of plant its popular name, as many 

 town gardeners are more familiar with 1 Sweet William ' than with its 

 botanical name of Dianthus barbatus, and so on with other plants ; the 

 simplicity of its plant names and its concise, clear, practical advice 

 enhance the value of the book very much for the class of readers for 

 whom it is specially written. The chapter on Annuals is a most useful 

 one. The seed is sown in early spring, and the plants grow and flower 

 gorgeously at a period when fogs are absent or nearly so, and we are sure 

 annuals are not so much employed for the decoration of the town garden 

 as they should be. In the chapter on Shrubs we should like to have 

 seen more space devoted to the planting of evergreen trees and shrubs 

 for screens, as deciduous trees leave a garden very bare and exposed in 

 winter. The author mentions Cujpressus Lawsoniana Allumi, but we 

 have seen this and many other conifers absolutely refuse to live in a 

 very smoky, foggy suburb, while evergreen oaks, Ceanothus, and Azara 

 microphylla were healthy, vigorous, and perfectly satisfactory all the 

 year round. Again we should not plant many Euonyrmis, as it is 

 no uncommon thing to find the bushes swarming with caterpillars. 

 The chapter on Roses is excellent, and we commend the system of 

 pruning to all who may be in doubt on this vexed question. The advice 

 given in other chapters is equally reliable. 



"Plant Anatomy." By Wm. Chase Stevens. 8vo., 349pp. (J. & A. 

 Churchill, London, 1908.) 10s. 6d. net. 



The great value of a knowledge of vegetable physiology to the farmer 

 and gardener and the greater interest such a knowledge adds to the 

 study of other branches of botany, prompted by intellectual curiosity, as 

 well as the newer standpoint of studying living things known as ecology, 

 have combined to lead to the production of a considerable number of 

 books relating to this subject. Some have taken physiology as their 

 central theme and have borrowed illustrations from morphology and 

 anatomy to make more clear the bearing of plant function in relation to 

 form and structure, while others have studied form and structure in 

 relation to function. The present book belongs to the latter class, and 

 its aim is to direct the student to so study plant anatomy that the 

 process of cell-differentiation and the steps by which mature tissues are 

 made fit for their functions are revealed and " the high biological 

 significance" of such differentiation is impressed. The author says: 

 "It is not Nature's way to evoke cells and tissues at random, with no 

 problems to be solved by their evolution. The tissues are not an aimless 

 expression of the power of variability. Rather they represent the means 



