MONOGRAPHS FOR AN AMATEUR GARDENER'S LIBRARY* 361 
thickness of the structure at these points produces the appearance 
of the black spots." 
For those with more modest purses and ambitions there is the same 
author's little book " Irises " * in The Present-day Gardening Series, 
at is. 6d. (Messrs. Jack). It has eight excellent coloured plates 
from photographs of the actual flowers, and gives a very fair idea of 
the more important species suitable for cultivation, and, in chapter xv. 
on Irises that seldom flower, tells of those most people will wish to 
avoid. 
Another very useful book is " The Book of the Iris, " * by R. 
Irwin Lynch (vol. xxi. of John Lane's Handbooks of Practical 
Gardening, published in 1904, 2s. 6d.). Until the great monograph 
came, this was the chief guide for all Iris-growers. 
The thirty-eight photographic illustrations are all good, but 
especially those taken purposely for the books by Mr. Allard, who 
was at that time on the staff of the Cambridge Botanic Garden. One 
feature of this book is a couple of pages and a plate describing the 
methods of making, and best forms of, zinc labels. I have followed 
the advice given therein ever since I read it, and, if only zinc were 
as easily obtained as formerly, I should use no other kind of labels 
for outdoor .work. 
Mr. Ewbank wrote a chapter on the cultivation of Oncocyclus 
Irises specially for this book, and as' he succeeded in growing these, 
the despair of most other Iris lovers, his advice is worth pondering. 
Even the possessor of the great monograph, should he wish to grow 
Irises well, cannot afford to be without Mr. Lynch's book, nor should 
he fail to acquire one of the few remaining copies of the reprint from 
the R.H.S. Journal of Sir Michael Foster's " Bulbous Irises " * 
(is. 6d., post free is. xod.), published in 1892-3. The substance of it 
was given as a lecture, and afterwards, expanded and slightly altered, 
appeared as this little book, which, as far as it goes, is a masterly and 
pleasantly written monograph of this group. 
Then the serious botanist must have Mr. J. G. Baker's " Hand- 
book of the Irideae " * (London, 1892), and so too should the intelligent 
amateur, for the genera Moraea, Marica, Sisyrinchium, Gladiolus, 
Crocus, and others are dealt with, as well as Iris itself. 
It is the last of a series of botanical handbooks prepared by 
Mr. Baker while he was at Kew. They represent many years' 
work, and stand as a marvellous record of his great services to 
Botany. 
In many of the families dealt with, he evolved order out of chaos, 
being the first to collect together in a systematic work the references to 
published descriptions of each species. Further, his position at Kew, 
and his knowledge of the British Herbaria and those of the Continent, 
enabled him to describe for the first time great numbers of plants. The 
first of the series was the " Handbook of the Fern Allies " * (Bell, Lon- 
don, 1887). Then came the " Amaryllideae " * in 1888, the result of 
twenty-three years of work in making careful notes on all the specimens 
