Notes and Reviews 
W E have been requested to announce 
that the Fourth Annual Convention of 
the Architectural League of America will be 
held at Toronto, Canada, on Thursday, 
Friday and Saturday, May 29, 30 and 31, 
1902. The Architectural Eighteen Club of 
that city, one of the fifteen progressive 
organizations of young architects which 
comprise the League, will be host for the 
visitors, and it has planned to make the 
occasion both profitable and interesting. The 
topics for discussion this year are to be 
chiefly those of municipal improvement, 
architectural education in America and the 
various departments of club work. It is the 
custom at these conventions that all sessions, 
except the closing banquet, are open to the 
public; and unless this year’s gathering falls 
far below the previous ones held at Cleve¬ 
land, Chicago and Philadelphia, there are 
certain to be addresses not only of intimate 
concern to practising architects but of a keen 
general interest. The subject of municipal 
improvement alone has unusual possibilities 
in interesting outsiders in the work of the 
Convention. A stirring and beneficial part 
of these yearly meetings of our club men has 
been the after-dinner addresses at the banquet 
by which the sessions have been closed. 
Memory of the inspiring words of Mr. Sul¬ 
livan at Chicago and Mr. Cass Gilbert and 
Mr. Blackall at Philadelphia is sufficient to 
tempt all those who heard them to repair to 
Toronto this month in expectation of similar 
pleasures. 
“ T'HE Book of Bulbs ” 1 is the fifth of the 
1 little volumes called “Handbooks of 
Practical Gardening.” Its author is himself 
a practical gardener, being a canny Scot from 
the county of Kirkcudbright, and a frequent 
contributor to the English gardening period¬ 
icals. I he little book covers the whole 
alphabet of bulbous plants from Aconite to 
Zephyranthes. It describes the several spe¬ 
cies and gives cultural directions. It 
includes a far wider range of plants than it 
is possible to grow here in any but our 
southern states. Indeed, it is a great pity 
that many of the admirable English books 
on gardening cannot, for our own use, be 
Americanized. How highly useful to us 
would be, for example, such a work as 
Robinson’s English Flower-Garden were it 
subjected to such changes as would fit it to 
the needs of those who live in the United 
States and Canada. Such an undertaking 
would call for very wide experience on the 
part of one who essayed the task. Still the 
experiment would be worth trying. 
I N the case of Miss Jekyll’s “ Lilies for Eng¬ 
lish Gardens” 2 such a change, though less 
necessary than in “ The Book of Bulbs,” 
J J 
would be a welcome one. The uncertainty as 
to whether a lily that is described as perfectly 
hardy in an English garden will stand the 
frosts of one of our northern states makes 
it necessary to refer to some reliable American 
treatise before deciding whether it is or is 
not worth while to plant it. But apart from 
this difficulty, Miss Jekyll’s latest book, like 
all of hers, is an admirable one. It tells 
amateurs in the plainest way just what they 
want to know about lilies. The information 
is condensed, and put as briefly as possible. 
The arrangement is a simple one, and refer¬ 
ence to any statement is easily made. Only 
such lilies as are worth growing and may be 
grown in England are described in the book. 
It is therefore not a botanical treatise, yet 
the author, contrary to her usual custom, 
enters upon the subject from its botanical side, 
devoting her first chapter to the classification 
of the genus Lilium , and making the sub¬ 
divisions admirably clear, not only by her 
descriptions but by drawings in outline which 
show the characteristics of each. The very 
abundant and beautiful illustrations are most 
acceptable. Only about hall the book is given 
up to the description of the several species. 
The remaining pages cover such subjects as 
lilies in pots in outdoor groups, lilies in the 
rock-garden, lilies as cut flowers and the most 
beautiful ways of growing lilies. Needless to 
say that all this, being by Miss Jekyll, is 
readable in the extreme and full ol the most 
admirable suggestion. 
1 The Book of Bulbs by S. Arnott. i 14 pp.; 11 half-tone plates : 
5 // x7f2 // . London and New York, John Lane, 1901. Price$i.oo. 
2 Lilies for English Gardens : A Guide for Amateurs, by Gertrude 
Jekyll. 72 pp.; 63 half-tone plates; London, Geo. 
Newnes ; New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1901. Price $2.50. 
232 
