BOOK REVIEWS. 



685 



" Southern Field Crops." By J. F. Duggar. Crown 8vo., xxviii 

 680 pp. (Macmillan, London.) 7s. 6d. net. 

 Prepared for practical farmers and students desirous of obtaining 

 full practical knowledge of the field crops grown in Southern 

 merica. The following crops are dealt with: —Oats; wheat; barley; 

 e ; maize ; rice ; sorghums ; cotton ; hemp ; sweet potatos ; pea nuts ; 

 gar-cane and tobacco. Maize and cotton are most fully dealt with, 

 and but for the fact that those plants are not largely grown in the 

 British Isles this work would be extensively used here. The methods 

 of teaching, and the information conveyed, are thoroughly excellent. 

 Interesting and instructive to the student of science, it is the practical 

 grower who will most appreciate this book. It cannot be too strongly 

 eulogized. 



** The Bulb Book; or, Bulbous and Tuberous Plants for the Open 

 Air, Stove, and Greenhouse." By John Weathers. Bvo., 471 pp. 

 (John Murray, London, 1911.) 15s. net. 



- This is probably the largest and most complete book on bulbs that 

 has yet been issued, embracing hardy, half-hardy, stove, and green- 

 house bulbs and tubers, with excellent descriptions of their propagation 

 and cultivation. The print is good, and there are over three hun- 

 dred figures. Some of these figures are very good, and some 

 indifferent; still, they show the form of the flower, &c., they are 

 meant to represent. Some of the plants named can scarcely be 

 termed bulbous or tuberous, but they are so close to one or the 

 other that they are not out of place. Many plants are mentioned 

 that are seldom met with except in botanic gardens or the garden of 

 an enthusiastic collector. All the groups of plants are carefully classi- 

 fied, with the name of their family. The cultivation of bulbs in the 

 open air has developed immensely of late years, and this portion of 

 the book will interest the majority of readers most. Parks, shrubberies, 

 woodlands, orchards, and other places, formerly so dull in many 

 places, are now, by the aid of bulbs, made most attractive parts of 

 the estate. Eegarding the depth bulbs should be planted, the author 

 says it is a good rule to cover the bulb, corm, or tuber with twice its 

 own depth in soil ; our experience is that all the large-flowered varieties 

 of Narcissus succeed best if planted nine inches or a foot deep in grass 

 or cultivated soil. Again, the advice as to covering Alstroemerias in 

 September with well-decayed manure may be safe in light, porous 

 soils, but on heavy ground it keeps the soil wetter and colder than it 

 would be without the manure. The book concludes with a first-rate 

 glossary of technical terms and a very good index. 



" Ehododendrons and Azaleas. " By Wilham Watson, A.L.S., 

 Ourator of the Eoyal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Bvo., 116 pp. (Messrs. 

 Jack, London, 1911.) Is. e>d, net. 



Sir Fred. W. Moore in writing the Preface for this book justly 

 Tiakes these remarks: "It is difficult to understand why a book 



