BOOK REVIEWS. 



87 



ings and gardens depicted in the plates were made between the years 

 1550 and 1720; symmetry of design being the prevailing feature of the 

 house, buildings and gardens, and one cannot fail to admire the 

 exceeding care to have everything exactly balanced. Clipped hedges, 

 parterres with box edging, and bowling greens, are much in evidence in 

 some of the engravings, and terraces are seen in almost all, proving that 

 expense was not spared. The book is of a convenient size, well-printed, 

 pleasingly bound. The pages are not all numbered, but the plates are, and 

 are easily found. 



"Mushrooms. How to grow them." By William Falconer. 8vo., 

 169 pp. (Kegan Paul, London, 1907.) 5s. 



Although this work was written in America for American readers 

 principally, there is much that is of interest and value to European readers, 

 in fact, many extracts are from books and papers published in Britain 

 on mushroom culture. While endorsing nearly all the information and 

 advice so ably put before us, we must disagree with the author when he 

 says "that the manure from carrot-fed horses is good, and anyone having 

 plenty of it can also have plenty of mushrooms." He freely admits that 

 it is not so good as manure from horses not root fed ; and our experience, 

 and that of many others who have grown mushrooms, is that no satis- 

 factory crop of mushrooms can be grown from manure where the horses 

 are daily supplied with roots or where they are physicked to keep them in 

 condition. With the above exception we cordially agree with all the 

 practical author has written, and can recommend the book to all interested 

 in mushroom cultivation. The work is well printed, nicely illustrated, 

 and well bound. 



"Children and Gardens." By Gertrude Jekyll. 8vo. 110 pp. 

 (Country Life, London, 1908.) 6s. net. 



A charmingly written book with beautiful illustrations, and with the 

 innumerable books on gardening there is still room for this. Nothing is 

 better for children than gardening, and the authoress tells how the love 

 of gardening may be fostered amongst children from her own experience. 

 Many children have been given pieces of barren or rough ground to make 

 a garden, and the work has become so irksome that in a short time they 

 have detested it, and cared very little about a garden ever after, but given 

 a nice little garden already made, the conditions are totally different. 

 All this and much more is fully treated upon by the author, and is well 

 worth reading by all who have children and a garden. The only thing 

 we object to in the book is the praise accorded to cats in the garden ; they 

 are nearly as bad as the proverbial bull in a china shop, doing almost as 

 much damage. 



