g6 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
gardens. The manual affords ample evidence that there is an abundance of 
material still awaiting development in tropical regions, but the author is careful 
to point out that it is a mistake to assume that in the tropics ' ' luscious fruits 
grow on every tree and the languorous native has only to stretch forth his hand 
to obtain his dinner." As a matter of fact, inhabitants of tropical countries 
frequently suffer from lack of fresh fruit and have nothing like the supplies that 
are available to dwellers in temperate zones. The ignorance of the art of grafting 
is advanced by the author as one of the principal causes of the absence of 
superior fruit, most of the fruit available in tropical countries being the produce 
of wild or semi-wild trees that have not been improved by cultivation. As is 
well known, the finest fruits are artificial productions and can only be retained for 
use of man by artificial means. Tropical fruits leave ample room for improve- 
ment, but this can only take place when their cultivation is taken up on the 
lines of rubber, coconut, cotton, and other tropical crops which have seriously 
engaged the attention of European and American planters during recent years. 
The food supply of natives of tropical countries becomes more important every 
year, and this is more especially the case when food is given in return for labour, 
as is the case with most planting companies. Several of the fruits mentioned 
in the manual are of considerable food value apart from their importance as an 
adjunct to the ordinary dietary. It is on this account suggested that agri- 
cultural development should be carried on on broader lines, and that the pro- 
duction of food crops, including fruit, should proceed along the same lines as 
the development of crops for export. Systematic cultivation has already done 
wonders for several tropical and sub-tropical fruit crops, for instance, bananas, 
pineapples, coconuts, and citrus fruits, to mention only a few of the fruits 
that have engaged the attention of planters in tropical countries. In carrying 
on this good work the manual should prove of great assistance, for it presents 
in a convenient form all the available information regarding the subjects treated, 
and in cases where they have been experimentally cultivated particulars of 
their requirements and methods of propagation are furnished. The text- 
illustrations, prepared from photographs specially for this work, are very help- 
ful ; but the plates, which are also good, would have been better placed opposite 
the descriptive matter relating to them instead of being scattered through 
the work without page references. 
" A Garden of Peace : A Medley of Quietude." By F. Littlemore. 8vo. 
2 7 I PP- (Collins, London, 1919.) 10s. 6d. net. 
The sub-title better conveys an idea of the contents of this book than the main 
title. A medley it is, but a very pleasant one, and recurring again and again 
to the garden " about it and about," and breathing a spirit of quiet humour 
from beginning to end, sometimes developing into fun. But again and again the 
garden and what it means comes up, and (p. 143) " If I were asked in what 
direction one should look for the salvation of the race from the rush into Avernus 
toward which we have been descending, I would certainly say, ' The garden 
and the allotment only will arrest our feet on the downward path.' " 
" The Flora of South Africa : Dictionary of the Common Names of Plants, 
with List of Foreign Plants cultivated in the Open." By R. Marloth. 175 pp. 
8vo. (Specialty Press, Cape Town, 191 7.) 6s. 6d. 
Part III. of this book gives a partial list of exotic plants cultivated in South 
Africa, beginning with " aardapple " (potato) and ending with " zooneblom " 
(sunflower). The two names quoted illustrate well the keynote of the source 
of the common names of native plants which occupy the first two parts of the 
book — the majority appear to be derived from Dutch, and comparatively few 
from the native languages. As usual many common names are attached to 
some plants. For instance A sclepias fruticosa is variously called gansies, melkbos, 
tondelbos, wilde kapok, fire-sticks, shrubby milkweed, wild cotton ; and also as 
usual the same common name is made to apply to several species — for instance, 
steek-gras means Aristida congesta, Heteropogon contortus, and Cymbopogon 
hirtus, as well as other species. The list should be very useful to students of 
the Cape flora. 
" The Fungal Diseases of the Common Larch." By W . E. Hiley, M.A. 
xi + 204 pp. 8vo. (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1919.) 12s. 6d. net. 
An excellent and exhaustive account of the subject with which it deals, well 
illustrated, clearly written, and amply indexed. 
