360 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



exists to-day. Citrus trees are said to have been introduced by the 

 Spaniards into their South American possessions at a very early 

 date, and were taken thence to California by missionaries and pioneers 

 of Spanish descent early in the eighteenth century. The original 

 orchards are still standing, in some cases, on the sites of the old mission 

 stations. The modern Citrus industry is peculiar amongst horticultural 

 industries in that it has been built up almost entirely by individuals 

 who were professional or business men broken in health in following 

 their pursuits in cities, and who sought an open-air life in the dry 

 atmosphere and sunshine of California and Florida in order to find 

 rest and to recuperate. These men brought to the industry the 

 necessary capital, and, what was equally valuable, commercial habits 

 and business ability, and to these is largely due the success and import- 

 ance to which the industry has attained at the present time. Another 

 factor tending towards success has been the protective duty imposed 

 upon Citrus imports by the United States Congress. Further, the 

 United States Government has helped by carrying out scientific 

 investigations, by disseminating information by means of free lectures 

 and pamphlets, and by operating free demonstration trains on the 

 railroads. Agricultural and Horticultural Societies and Chambers 

 of Commerce have likewise lent their aid. Commencing with the 

 history of the industry and giving an account of the introduction and 

 development of the famous Washington navel orange, the book treats 

 of the botany of the subject and describes the numerous varieties 

 and forms of Citrus fruits ; this is followed by chapters or sections on 

 nursery culture, breeding, judging, planting, cultivation and ferti- 

 lization of Citrus orchards, irrigation, pruning, orchard-heating against 

 frosts, picking, packing and marketing, by-products of the Citrus 

 industry, orchard pests and diseases and their control. Much of this 

 information is of practical use only in California, but growers of fruit 

 in this country might with advantage read the chapters on orchard- 

 heating, the control of diseases and pests, and the splendid organiza- 

 tion of the industry, the latter almost absent amongst fruit farmers 

 in this country. The book is well printed and illustrated ; there 

 are a few slips of the pen, as in the case on page 4, where a well- 

 known nurseryman of this country is referred to as Sir Thomas Rivers. 



" A School Flora." By W. M. Watts. New ed. Svo. viii + 

 208 pp. (Longmans, London, 1915.) 3s. 6d. 



When first published in 18S7, this book was intended as a " key" 

 for the botanical classes at the Giggleswick School, but it soon found 

 a wider public, and its second enlargement to include the rarer plants 

 growing in the neighbourhood of most of the other big public schools 

 will still further extend its sphere of usefulness. There is probably 

 no better " key " to ascertain the names of the wild plants of Britain 

 than this, and the book needs no other encomium beyond the fact 

 of a further edition being called for. 



