288 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



BOOK EEVIEWS. 



"The English Flower Garden and Home Grounds." By W. 

 Kobinson. Ed. 11. 8vo., 976 pp. (Murray, London, 1911.) 15s. 

 net. 



It is surely unnecessary to write a lengthy review of this reprint. 

 Its appearance proves its widely known fame — especially when one 

 realizes that the fifth, sixth, and tenth editions were also reprinted once, 

 and the eighth no less than four times. Can there be anyone in England 

 who owns a trowel and a square yard of garden ground who does 

 not know it? Yet the pleasant memories its well-known illustrations 

 call up in my mind bid me linger awhile over it. Many of them are 

 still to me the type and embodiment O'f my ideas of certain plants 

 whose aspects I first learnt from seeing them therein. The handy form 

 in which it is arranged, the first part replete with information for the 

 designing and forming of almost every possible style o^f garden, the 

 second with its alphabetical list of plants suitable for the open-air, 

 makes it still the best book I know of for English gardeners, until they 

 arrive at a sufficient knowledge of its contents to warrant their buying 

 a more costly and complete work. Nicholson's Dictionary of Gardening 

 should then be sought, but the constant re-reading of " The English 

 Flower Garden " will still be useful, especially to assist in planning and 

 maintaining beautiful garden effects. 



"The Complete Gardener." By H. H. Thomas. 8vo., 579 pp. 

 (Oassell, London, 1912.) 10s. 6d. net. 



The aim of this book is stated in the preface thus : " It is concerned 

 in bringing to notice the list of hardy flowers, greenhouse flowers, 

 evergreen and blossoming shrubs, fruits and vegetables, and in telling 

 how they are grown," and farther on a plea is urged for the "light 

 vein " of its style, the object of which claims to be " to present prosaic 

 facts in a readable fashion." 



Some 579 pages are devoted to this laudable effort. In these days, 

 when there is scarcely a- living soul outside prisons, hospitals, and 

 lunatic asylums who does not garden in some form or other, there 

 may be a sufficiency to read, mark, and learn from such a book, 

 Eather less of the sprightly, somewhat forced, lightness of vein would 

 have left more room for facts, prosaic or otherwise, and surely the 

 gardener who aims at completeness must require all the facts available. 



Thus, to say of Solidago Virgaurea " the yellow flowers that come 

 only at the top of the stem are not very showy " may be the truth, 

 but the whole truth should include S. Shortii, whose arching panicles 

 make such a brave show, in a book that is to bring to notice the best 

 of hardy flowers. 



There are rather too many of such openings as ' ' What shall one 



