The Garden Magazine, December, 1923 
223 
though her larger “The Book of the Peony”] will give the owners of 
this book not only the best possible guide in Peonies for their own gar¬ 
dens, but a capital addition to their garden libraries.” 
Dwarf and Slow-Growing Conifers (Scribner’s) by Murray 
Hornibrook. 
The smaller Evergreens remain unrivalled and are so much used in 
little gardens, large gardens, rock gardens, for foundation plantings and 
elsewhere that Mr. Hornibrook’s sympathetic and intelligent presen¬ 
tation of the pygmy types, with their fascinating variations of form and 
color, arrives most opportunely. This English author brings to ap¬ 
preciative notice the splendid collection at the Arnold Arboretum, also 
a group flourishing in the public park at Rochester, N. Y., under the 
wise surveillance of Mr. John Dunbar. Of the twenty-five illustra¬ 
tions, more than half were taken in this country where this race of 
Evergreens, chiefly Oriental in origin, makes itself mightily at home. 
Cyclopedia of Hardy Fruits (Macmillan) by V. P. Hedrick, 
N. Y. Agricultural Experiment Station. 
An accurate and very comprehensive reference manual to aid in the 
identification and choice of varieties for fruit-growers, whether amateur 
or professional. Clear divisions into groups, as Pome-fruits, Drupe- 
fruits, Brambles, etc. Well illustrated with sketches, halftones, and 
color plates. 
Tall Bearded Iris (Stager) by IValter Stager. 
Let a flower once lay hold on your imagination and soon it will possess 
your garden too! Subtly Mr. Stager links the Iris to fancy, leading us 
back through the ages to far Homer who found joy in his blindness 
singing of this “spirit of the rainbow.” The bulk of the book is, of 
course, given over to practical information about Iris—classification, 
structural characteristics, planting, propagation—very fully illustrated 
with pictures taken in the author’s Illinois garden. 
For West and South 
Gardening in California (Doubleday, Page & Co.) by Sydney B. 
Mitchell , University of California. 
As the first in its field, this simple, straight-forward, down-to-tacks 
discussion of the possibilities and actualities of gardening on the Pacific 
Coast merits special attention and gratitude. Mr. Mitchell knows 
whereof he speaks and his forceful introductory remarks may profitably 
be read by gardeners everywhere. From such generally applicable 
fundamentals he swings into particulars of climate, irrigation, culti¬ 
vation, etc. of the California section, giving space to a quintette of popu¬ 
lar flowers—the Chrysanthemum, Dahlia, Gladiolus, Iris, Rose—top¬ 
ping off with a detailed calendar of garden operations month by month. 
Historic Gardens of Virginia (Wni. Byrd Press) 
Compiled by The Janies River Garden Club, edited by Edith Tunis 
Sale, introductory word by Mary Johnston. 
Cradle of early colonial gardening, Virginia is uniquely fortunate in 
her possession of a number of old gardens that still bespeak the dignity 
of earlier and more leisurely days. A beautiful and fitting activity for 
any garden club—this perpetuating in permanent form of gardens that 
have played a part in history so that even though they perish their 
memory will remain. May this farsighted service of The James River 
Garden Club inspire clubs elsewhere to go and do likewise! 
For the Practical-minded 
Gardening Under Glass (Doubleday, Page & Co.) by F. F. Rock¬ 
well. 
“The first greenhouse I ever owned was only i 5 feet wide bv 20 feet 
long. That little sunshine shanty showed me the real joys of garden¬ 
ing.” Since this humble initiation Mr. Rockwell has travelled through 
the many phases of indoor gardening with undiminished enthusiasm, 
setting forth his findings in simple, serviceable manner. A pleasant 
book this and a practical one with its chapters on Flowers, Fruits, and 
Vegetables, on Month by Month Activities, and a particularly illuminat¬ 
ing section on Plant Combinations by Temperatures—what lavman 
would suspect, for instance, that the exotic Orchid and the prosaic Egg¬ 
plant enjoy the same degree of heat? And finally there’s Chapter 
XXVI 11 with its useful lists of Books to Help You Further. 
Vegetable Crops (McGraw-Hill Book Co.) by Homer C. Thompson 
B. Sc., Cornell University. 
The increasingly important place of vegetables on the menu and as a 
health factor, quite aside from their economic value (and, incidentally, 
the known crops of home-grown vegetables alone in 1919 was $193, 248,- 
964 besides many unaccounted for!) keep them in the forefront of the 
gardener’s consciousness no matter how aesthetic his natural inclina¬ 
tion. As a matter of fact, vegetables and flowers often make happy 
bedfellows without detriment to either. In this textbook Mr. Thomp¬ 
son assembles the results of experimental and research work in con¬ 
vincing manner, and though technical books are seldom so readable 
and pleasant at first sight as some of their less substantial literary kin, 
they well repay the effort of a little sifting in order to get at facts ap¬ 
plicable to one’s individual garden problems. Both large and small 
scale grower will find much constructive suggestion in this volume. 
Insecticides and Fungicides —Spraying and Dusting Equipment 
(John Wiley & Sons) by 0 . G. Anderson and F. C. Roth, both of Purdue 
University. 
Truly “the underlying principle in plant disease control is that 
of prevention rather than cure” and so a thorough knowledge of 
modern therapy as applied to the vegetable kingdom seems an essential 
of all intelligent gardening—and gardening nowadays is a matter of 
intelligence and not a mere hit-or-miss affair. Soil Disinfection, 
Guarding Against Parasites by Precautionary Measures, Protection 
by Spraying or Dusting, Selection of Disease-resistant Strains, Pre¬ 
paring the Various Sprays, Greenhouse Fumigation, are a few of the 
topics ably discussed in this very comprehensive and up-to-date man¬ 
ual which covers the whole field in complete and scientific manner with 
no slighting of detail. Lists of manufacturers of materials and equip¬ 
ments are also included. 
A Manual of Spraying (Macmillan) by Roy K. L. Cockerham. 
A useful feature of this small handbook for thegardener is its skeleton¬ 
like form furnishing a quick key to the various garden crops, what pests 
are likely to infest them, how to recognize, and how to remedy; giving 
also the standard sprays (as soap, whale-oil, etc.), their compositions 
and preparation in brief tabular manner. 
Commercial Floriculture (A. T. De La Mare) by Frit( Bahr. 
Packed with succinct information for the retail grower, well indexed 
and illustrated, and altogether pleasant to handle is this masterful man¬ 
ual of nearly six hundred pages covering practically all plants likely 
to be grown under glass. Important Flower Days and How to Pre¬ 
pare for Them, Best Bedding Plants, Rose Culture Under Glass, Cut 
Flower Arrangement, Seed Selling—to pick at random some of the acces¬ 
sory salient points, useful alike to amateur and professional. Mr. 
Bahr’s reputation as a teacher in florist trade circles is warrant to the 
quality of his advice. 
For the Beginner 
A Little Book of Annuals (A. T. De La Mare). 
A Little Book of Perennials (A. T. De La Mare) both by Alfred C. 
Hottes, Ohio State University. 
Practical, simple, and quite fully illustrated these little volumes 
will readily find favor with the new gardener and the busy suburbanite 
whose curtailed leisure limits him to quick results. Several hundred 
populardependables are listed in each book under such convenient head¬ 
ings as: For Dry Places, For Wet Places, For Cut Flowers, etc. 
For Various Viewpoints 
Gardens In and About Town (E. P. Dutton) by Minga Pope 
Du r yea. 
Re-creating the city as a place in which to live is the keynote of this 
book—a new type of gardening book altogether and wholly unlike all 
preconceived notions. City gardens for the summer-marooned business 
man—Mrs. Duryea handles the subject admirably and it is an admir¬ 
ably unhackneyed subject. We like her courage and her conviction 
and her stimulating style. Being herself a city dweller, she is not merely 
shooting into the blue but is speaking of something close to her heart. 
Many charming illustrations are scattered through the book, among 
them her own garden—proof of the pudding, as it were. Lists of Plants 
That Will Grow Under City Conditions, Flowers for Window-boxes, 
Furnishings for the City Garden are all workable contributions to the 
problem of bringing the country to town. 
Entomology with special Reference to Its Ecological Aspects (P. 
Blakiston’s Sons) by Justus IVatson Folsom, D. D., University of Illinois. 
Science imaginatively or creatively handled becomes singularly 
fascinating to the speculative-minded. Ordinarily speaking, bugs are 
not a stimulating topic but seen in their wider relations to p.ant and 
other forms of life they assume sudden interest. The gardener will find 
Dr. Folsom’s revelation of the inter-linking of insects and plants and the 
astounding give-and-take of all forms of life absorbing reading despite 
its technical handling and rigid adherence to scientific exactitude. 
