BOOK REVIEWS. 



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and in some cases have coined entirely new ones. It seems a pity to 

 alter existing names when it can be avoided, as in some cases it might 

 have been, we think, here, and the result is we find quite well-known 

 hybrids masquerading under unfamiliar names. 



Where many names have been bestowed upon the same thing the 

 choice of the oldest name is certainly the best in the long run, but it 

 seems a pity to discard such well-known names as Brassocattleya x 

 Digbyano-Mossiae and Odontoglossum x crispo-Harryanum upon what 

 appear quite insufficient grounds. Short names of the Latin form are no 

 doubt preferable to long ones commemorative of some person or place in 

 the vernacular ; but if rules are made concerning this, they should not be 

 made retrospective at this late date. Many vernacular names are 

 Latinized in the list ; thus Cattleya x ' Lord Rothschild ' becomes 0. x 

 Bothschildiana in the list, and others are shortened, e.g. Cypripedmm x 

 ' Princess Mary ' becomes Paphiopedilum x ' May.' 



" Practical School Gardening." By Percy Elford, M.A., and S. Eaton, 

 F.R.H.S. 8vo., 224 pp. (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1909.) 2s. net. 



We are still looking for a book ©n "School Gardening" conceived 

 and written in the spirit of the opening words of the introduction to this 

 little book, and that of the final chapter, written by Mr. P. E. 

 Meadon. School gardening in the hands of an enthusiastic and wise 

 teacher may be made a very powerful educative factor, but if the school 

 garden is utilized only as a place of instruction in the growing of big 

 turnips and large potatos, then the greater part of its educative value will 

 be lost. 



The school garden should be a place where the powers of observation 

 and the interest all children feel in the world of life may be fostered, 

 where the beauty of order and the beauty of Nature may begin to be 

 appreciated, where hand and eye may be exercised in work whose result 

 will gradually develop under the watchful eye of the pupil, and where a 

 tender reverence for living things (though no morbid sentimentality) may 

 be engendered. " Garden " properly, certainly, but do not let the crops 

 be the sole aim in the teacher's mind, any more than in the arithmetic 

 lesson the correct answer to a sum is the only aim. Good crops and 

 correct answers are essential, but a good understanding, lively observa- 

 tion, and method, are of more lasting value. 



The book before us is an excellent guide to cottage gardening, and 

 contains hints of great value to those having school gardens, but practical 

 garden hints have been written so very often, and clear hints to teachers 

 of methods by which the best educative results are to be attained so 

 seldom, that we wish the authors could have carried out the desirable plan 

 they have indicated here and there more fully. 



"The Pond I Know." By W. P. Westell and H. E. Turner. 8vo., 

 78 pp. (Dent, London, 1909.) 8d. net. 



One of a series of children's books describing in simple language 

 easily observed natural objects found in ponds. Most of the animals 

 and plants mentioned are illustrated, some of the pictures being coloured. 



