588 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



of former days. As Dr. Scott Keltie says in his preface to the book, 

 " there is a fascination about the life, not only for those who can sit at 

 home and read at their ease of travel and adventure, but for those who 

 have had actual experience of its hardships and its charms." But the 

 narrative brings home to us very forcibly the amount of peril and hard- 

 ship which naturalists and Orchid-collectors have to undergo. 



The comparison of the happy state of the party whilst going up the 

 stream, with their destitution after shipwreck on the Arichi rapids of the 

 Caura affluent of the Orinoco, impresses this point upon the reader's 

 mind — and it is still further emphasised by the fact that all the collec- 

 tions and all the work of months, as well as all the necessary supplies, 

 were lost. 



Mr. Andre's narrative records the results of a piece of work really 

 interesting and fruitful of scientific results. In addition to its horti- 

 cultural side the book abounds with interesting information of a more 

 general character. He describes fruits and other vegetation, the rubber 

 and Tonquin Bean industries, as well as the Orchids and other plants 

 which were the special object of his journey. 



The book is well printed and fully illustrated, and we heartily wish 

 the intrepid author every success in his intention of revisiting Ameha 

 and of reaching, if possible, the distant villages of the Parime Mountains, 

 thus satisfying " the keenest desire of his life." 



"The Fruit Garden." By George Bunyard, V.M.H., and Owen 

 Thomas, V.M.H. (Royal 8vo. Country Life Office, 1904. 21s. net, 500 



pages.) 



Without any doubt the best book of the sort yet published. There is 

 a separate chapter for every kind of fruit, and each chapter is a book in 

 itself, for in it are the amplest details as to planting, pruning, manuring ; 

 varieties of stock for grafting and their several advantages ; varieties best 

 worth cultivation ; best form of tree for various purposes, &c. &c, in fact 

 everything that anyone possessed of the usual modicum of common-sense 

 can need or wish for in order to succeed in fruit growing in his own 

 garden. The book simply teems with illustrations, diagrams, and out- 

 lines. The diagrams on pruning are particularly admirable ; we cannot 

 speak too highly of them, and from them anyone should be able to teach 

 himself to be an expert primer as far as young trees and bushes are con- 

 cerned. There are also chapters on tropical fruits and how to grow 

 them, planting, fruit stores, propagation, insects and diseases ; methods 

 pursued in America, France, and the Channel Islands ; and the book 

 winds up with 100 pages of outline drawings of the shape of different 

 varieties of fruits, which should be a wonderful aid to identification. Of 

 course, in so long a work a critic could pick holes here and there— for 

 example, that excellent Pear ' Beurre Dumont ' is omitted, while 

 • PitmastoD Duchess,' which is only fit for bottling (when, by the way, it 

 becomes excellont), is included in the list of dessert varieties ; the Pear- 

 leaf slug we do not notice amongst insects ; and the Alpine Strawberry, as 

 generally grown, is a long and pointed fruit, not globular as represented. 

 But when the book is so excellent and so intrinsically valuable and useful, 

 it would be carping to lay stress on these and a few similar little slips. 



