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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



" The Hardy Plant Year-Book, 1912." By A. J. MacSelf. 8vo. 

 51 pp. (Horticultural Printing Co., Burnley, 1912.) Is. Sd. 



The first year-book of the Hardy Plant Society is very creditable, 

 containing a great deal of serviceable information of general interest to 

 the hardy plant-grower. 



''The Cult of the Coconut." 8vo. 112 pp. (Curtis Gardner, 

 London, 1912.) 2s. 6d. net. 



The arrangement of the matter in this book is disjointed and 

 suggests a compilation of ill-assorted notes ; for instance, it is necessary 

 to read through forty-four pages before arriving at a description of the 

 plant with which the book professes to deal. The style in which the 

 book is written is reminiscent of company-promoting literature of the 

 " journalese " of the evening halfpenny newspaper type. The free use 

 of display type and marginal markings further emphasizes this resem- 

 blance. Despite its title there is very little about the actual cultivation 

 of the Coconut Palm, but much about the superiority of the German 

 merchant when compared with his English confrere. There is no 

 mention of the fungoid diseases and injurious insects that attack the 

 Coconut Palm, and only the slightest reference to the important subject) 

 of manuring, and none whatever to the kinds of manure to be employed. 

 The latter part of the book treats of the West African oil-palm (Elaeis 

 giiineensis), the botanical name of which is wrongly spelt, and reference 

 is also made to other oil-yielding seeds. The most valuable feature of 

 the book is the illustrations, which are excellent. 



" Botany, or the Modern Study of Plants." By Dr. M. C. Stopes. 

 sm. 8vo. 91 pp. (Jack, London, 1912.) Qd. net. 



This, one of ''The People's Books," is a brief outline of the 

 present-day attitude of workers in the different branches of Botany 

 to their subject. It is well got up, but here and there needs reading 

 with discretion, as, for example, at page 86, where it is said a flower 

 "is so like the violets that it must not be put in the genus Viola," 

 where the exact opposite is intended. 



"The Alpine Flora." By H. Correvon and P. Robert. Trans- 

 lated by E. W. Clayforth. 8vo. 436 pp. (Methuen, London, 1912.) 

 IBs. net. 



About half this excellent work on the flora of the mountains is 

 occupied by charming and accurate studies in colour of mountain 

 flowers, usually very well reproduced. The rest not only describes the 

 more common or striking mountain plants, but tells how they may 

 be cultivated to gain their fullest beauty. 



The talented author, whose devotion to alpine flowers and flower- 

 growing is second to none, is well known to all lovers of alpine gardens 

 in Great Britain, and his ideas on alpine-garden making as set forth 

 here, with his confessions of former errors and his final judgment 

 of what is fitting, will be given the weight they deserve. His praise 



