Henry Nicholson Ellacombe, Hon. Canon of Bristol, Vicar of 
Bitton and Rural Dean, 1822-1916. A Memoir, edited by Arthur 
W. Hill (8 vo., pp. 318, with a frontispiece and thirteen other 
illustrations. London, 1919). 
Captain Hill, Assistant Director of the Royal Botanic 
Gardens, Kew, has given us, in this delightful book, a charming 
tribute to the memory of one who contributed a wide and 
beneficent influence over British horticulture and gardening 
during a long series of years. Canon Ellacombe came from a 
family of plant-lovers, and apart from his ecclesiastical duties, 
his garden claimed most of his time and attention; his remark- 
able success as a gardener was in part, at least, due to the 
favorable soil and climatal conditions at Bitton in the south- 
western part of Gloucestershire in the valley of the Avon, 
although the calcareous soil excluded Rhododendrons and most 
other plants of the Heath Family; it is recorded that his 
gardener smuggled peat into the garden, against the Canon's 
better judgment /'at dead of night) in the hope of establishing 
such plants, but the trial resulted, as usual, in the lime winning 
back in the end. Notwithstanding this limitation, the garden 
was wonderfully varied in its plant-collection, containing an 
infinite number of rare and interesting species. As early as 
1869 he was exchanging plants with Kew, and this continued 
until the last year of his life; nineteen plates of the Botanical 
Magazine were prepared from plants grown in the garden at 
Bitton Vicarage and he was in continuous correspondence with 
Sir Joseph Hooker, Sir William Thiselton-Dyer, Sir David 
Prain and Captain Hill. Many of these letters are published in 
this book. 
Copies of the book, which should be in the library of every- 
body interested in gardening, may be obtained by remitting 
twelve shillings to Captain Hill, at his residence, 4 Branstone 
Road, Kew Gardens, Surrey, England. 
N. L. Britton. 
The Flowering and Fruiting of Plants As Controlled by the 
Length of Bay. By W. W. Garner and H. A. Allard — Bureau 
of Plant Industry, Washington, D. C. 
(Separate number 832 from the Year-book of the U. S. Dept. 
of Agric, 1920.) 
Two of the physiologists who have been investigating the 
question of plant-nutrition have made some very interesting 
experiments in controlling the amount of light for certain kinds 
of plants, particularly certain kinds of tobacco, one of which, the 
Maryland Mammoth, produces more than one hundred leaves, 
but does not form flowers or fruit unless grown in the greenhouse 
or planted in Southern Florida in winter, when the days are 
shorter. The experiments included a large variety of plants 
both wild and cultivated. With the Biloxi Soy Bean, which 
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