280 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



" I have been enabled to squash worries and discard doctors thus far — in 

 fact, my only dose of medicine in twenty years I used to kill weeds." 

 For the second undertaking she can tell us of eight beds of Lithospermum 

 prostratum, 7 feet by 5 ; masses of gentian blue in spring ; Crassula 

 coccinea, pieces of which, put in 6 inches apart, grew so that their flowers 

 touched each other and became a platform of dazzling colour ; Telopea 

 speciosissima, from Australia, with heads as large as cricket balls, of red 

 tubular flowers ; Doryanthus excelsa, as shown in the illustration, with 

 five flowers, stems about 12 feet high ; Hoy a camosa, which can be 

 wintered out of doors when grown among some other creepers ; Stephanotis 

 floribunda, killed by frost only twice in twenty years ; a row of twenty 

 Eucalyptus ficifolia that flowered four years after planting and every 

 summer are covered with scarlet blossoms ; Lapageria, Poinciana 

 Gilliesii, Lathyrus splendens, Plumbago capensis, Embothrium coccineum, 

 Jacaranda ?nimosifolia, Protea, Leucodendron, Olearia angustifolia with 

 bunches of mauve, daisy-like flowers, and Glianthus puniceus, all 

 flourishing like the proverbial "green bay tree," and many a treasure is 

 to be had by making a raid on the Bush. Of course there is the com- 

 plaint most gardeners make — of bad subsoil ; our own garden generally 

 has the worst in the whole world, but this one " resembling yellow soap 

 intermixed with ironstone " does appear a real trial. A chapter on the 

 native birds adds much to the interest of the book, and many bright 

 anecdotes and graver thoughts are sprinkled about. Apropos of the 

 futility of certain modern notions, she tells us "A Gourd climbed up 

 a Palm and said : ' How old are you ? ' ' One hundred years,' said the 

 Palm. ' Then I have out-topped you in one single season,' said the 

 Gourd contemptuously. Eeplied the Palm, 1 You will do more than that 

 in one season— you will die.' " Had we not learnt early in the book 

 that the writer does all except the heavy work herself, we should perhaps 

 deplore the extreme loyalty that took the gardener off suddenly to fight 

 the Boers before he had milked the cow. 



"The Forester." By John Nisbet, D.CE.C. 8vo. 2 vols., 506 + 642 pages. 

 (Blackwood, Edinburgh and London.) 42s. net. 



With the seventh edition of this work, the original " Forester," by 

 James Brown, may be said to have entirely disappeared, even the name 

 Nisbet being substituted in the present edition for that of the earlier 

 compiler. Though, perhaps, savouring more of the theoretical than the 

 practical, the present edition must be admitted by everyone who is 

 conversant with forestry and arboriculture to be a decided improvement 

 on the original ; in fact, in point of merit, the two works bear little or no 

 comparison. Originally, Brown's " Forester " consisted of but a single 

 volume, whereas the present edition comprises two, with twenty-seven 

 chapters and 285 illustrations. Chapter I., dealing with " Historical 

 sketches of forestry in this country," is pleasant and instructive reading, 

 and contains a fairly comprehensive account of our forests and woods, 

 from a very early period down to the present time, while the " National 

 economic importance of woodlands " has been carefully and exhaustively 

 prepared, and summarises nearly all that is worthy of record. Part II. 

 of the work, which is devoted to a description of " Our woodland and 



