588 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



particularly rich. Three plates of plants peculiar to the district are 

 given. 



The book is well printed, carefully revised, and altogether of the 

 best type of local flora. 



" Oxford Gardens based upon Daubeny's Popular Guide to the 

 Physick Garden of Oxford." By E. T. Giinther, M.A. Svo. xv + 

 280 pp. (Parker, Oxford, 1912.) 6s. net. 



A history of the oldest Botanic Garden in the country was very 

 desirable, and the author has searched old records assiduously in order 

 to find the materials for it, for of official records there appear to be but 

 few. Indeed, to judge from the author's preface, even of of&cial recog- 

 nition of the Garden as a University Institution there has been but little. 

 After the history of the Garden follows an annotated list of the plants 

 grown. We would suggest that before a second edition is published 

 it would be well to compare the spellings of the plant names with an 

 authentic list, and we hope the author will see his way to conform with 

 the accepted convention with regard to the capitalization of the initial 

 letter of certain specific names. Short, and surely quite incomplete, 

 lists of fauna are also given. The concluding chapters deal with the 

 gardens belonging to the various colleges, but here again the treatment 

 seems rather unequal; certainly it seems inadequate as regards the 

 beautiful and extremely interesting rock garden at St. John's College, 

 built by the enthusiasm and personal work of the Bursar, Mr. Bidder. 

 The trees all through Oxford come in for a considerable share of 

 attention. 



"A Text-book of Botany." By E. Strasburger, L. Jost, H. 

 Schenck, and G. Karsten. Translated by Dr. W. H. Lang. Svo. xi + 

 767 pp. (Macmillan, London, 1912.) 18s. net. 



A text-book that has reached its tenth edition in Germany and its 

 fourth in this country needs little else to recommend it. It has proved 

 its right to a place, but the fact that it has been revised, by competent 

 men, so as to have been practically re- written in parts, ensures that it 

 will maintain the high position into which its excellences have placed it. 

 The greatest change is in the section dealing with vegetable physiology, 

 to which 151 pages are devoted, and this is far more adequately dealt 

 with than in the first edition. Coloured plates of a considerable number 

 of the plants mentioned in the section on Classification are given. 



"Plant Life." By Grant Allen. Eevised editio-n, with an addi- 

 tional chapter by Professor G. Henslow. Svo. 240 pp. (Hodder & 

 Stoughton, London. 1912.) Is. net. 



" The Story oi Wild Flowers." By the Eev. Professor Henslow. 

 Eevised and enlarged edition. Svo. viii+257 pp. (Hodder & Stough- 

 ton, London. 1912.) Is. net. 



"Forest and Stream." By J. Eodway, F.L.S. Svo. viii + 

 204 p'p. (Hodder & Stoughton, London. 1912.) ls.net. 



These are three books of the " Useful Knowledge Series." The 

 first two deal with the forms and functions of plants, the last largely 



