BOOK REVIEWS. 



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maker. In the matter of synonyms, Dr. Hogg's authority for the 

 identity of the Verdoch of Parkinson with the Greengage is quoted. 

 This, however, is, we think, a mistake, as Parkinson's description of 

 Verdoch as " a great fine green shining Plum fit to preserve," and his 

 later reference to the Olive Plum as " the best of all sortes of greene 

 Plums " do not render it likely that the first is identical with the 

 Queen of Plums — the Greengage. There seems to be little doubt, as 

 Hogg says, this fruit was grown in England long before its reintroduc- 

 tion by a member of the Gage family, and to which it owes its name, 

 but his opinion of its Grecian origin is not so certain. Koch found 

 in the Caucasus certain wild Plums of an extremely close resemblance 

 to the Greengage, and the fact that it also comes almost true from 

 seed tends towards ranking it as a true species. 



A striking and unique feature of this work are the descriptions of 

 the hybrids of the American and Japanese varieties; we know of no 

 other fruit where so exact and careful a record has been kept of the 

 blending of the alien races of fruits with the native species, and for 

 students of biology there is here valuable material and concrete records 

 where in analogous cases probabilities and guesses are the only 

 resource. Of the format of the book there is nothing but praise. 

 Its 580 quarto pages and coloured plates form a bulky work, but when 

 quality is added to size the pomologist at least will not complain. The 

 plates are examples of the so-called three-colour work and of a high 

 grade. Fruits, leaves, and branches, and also stones are depicted. 



Typographical errors are but few, and it only remains to congratu- 

 late the authors very -heartily on the completion of an undertaking, the 

 magnitude of which is only to be realized by those who have attempted 

 a similar task. We hear the authors have now upon the stocks com- 

 panion volumes dealing with Pears and Cherries. Verily, a great 

 country is America, and the men that dwell therein ! 



