BOOK EEVIEWS. 



519 



and becomes fertilized by an antherozoid traversing the tube formed above 

 it as part of the archegonium. We can forgive Mr. Heath for trying to 

 simplify description, but not for such fundamentally misleading details 

 as these. He also advises the spore sower that his cultures " must be 

 kept in a dark place," whereas the more light, other than direct sunlight, 

 the better. 



We also regret to note that, in this book as elsewhere, Mr. Heath 

 practically advocates that vandalism which has done so much to denude 

 our ferny districts of their beauty, and which of late has happily been 

 restricted to a great extent by punishment of the raiders. No other 

 possible construction can be put upon advice that " the Fern hunter should 

 be provided with a fork, stout chisel, hammer, trowel and spade, together 

 with a conveyance, whenever Fern hunting on a large scale is indulged 

 m" (the italics are ours) (p. 96). The puzzle here is how can any 

 professed Fern lover advocate their destruction in this manner, and ignore 

 the rights of local ownership, which are thereby outraged. 



Finally the depreciatory allusions to the varietal forms of these Ferns 

 are entirely out of date. That long names are given them is no argument 

 against their beauty. He lumps them all as " in reality but monstrosities 

 of a more or less constant and pronounced kind" (p. 174-5), and elsewhere 

 (p. 195) he asserts that " varieties to a large extent are merely accidental 

 departures from the normal form, and frequently do not preserve their 

 peculiarities under cultivation." This last assertion is a fair proof that 

 Mr. Heath is lamentably ignorant of the real facts, and should have 

 studied the subject before committing himself to such a statement. The 

 book in short is a pretty book for the table, but for the real Fern student 

 contains absolutely nothing new. 



"The Perpetual Flowering Carnation." By Montague C. Allwood. 

 8vo., 131 pp. (Hugh Low, Bush Hill Park, London, 1907.) 2s. 



The book treats of this type of Carnation in considerable detail, and 

 the author starts by defining " Dianthus Caryophyllus more commonly 

 known as Pink." This is misleading, as the garden Pink has been derived 

 from D, plumariics, although to be fair to the author D. Caryophyllus is 

 also known as the Clove Pink. After giving some account of the intro- 

 duction of the tree Carnation from France to America in 1844 and its 

 subsequent improvement there, it is also stated that " there is not the 

 slightest doubt but that the British tree Carnation was originally 

 imported from France about 1856." Certainly six years earlier, to the 

 writer's knowledge. He remembers training some of them to walls in 

 Scotland in 1852-3, but both plants and flowers were contemptible in 

 comparison with the beautiful flakes and bizarres grown at that time. 



A very useful introduction from France in the early sixties was 

 ' L'Alegatiere ' ; it had fairly well formed flowers of a bright scarlet colour. 

 Our author states that this variety "was grown extensively about 1865 to 

 produce cut bloom for Covent Garden Market, and old Carnation growers 

 have told the writer that these were grown on the roofs of houses, not 

 being allowed to bloom for the first two years." Verily there were some 

 queer florists somewhere in those early days. The writer bought it when 

 it was first sent out, and flowered it at once in the greenhouse. Why it 



