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BOOK REVIEW.
"The Lily Year-Book," 1934; London, Royal Horticultural Society, Vincent Square, Westminster, S.W.1. Pages 1-117 with 43 figures in the text, prepared mostly from photographs of lilies in flower. Price, five shillings paper, six shillings cloth.
The third annual "Lily Year-Book" for 1934 is as interesting and instructive as its two predecessors. Two articles deal with lilies in their natural environment, in Tibet by Capt. F. Kingdon Ward and in the Pontic region by E. K. Balls; in addition there are articles on "Lilies in Kenya" by J. L. Gifford, "Californian Lilies in Cultivatiin" by Dr. A. M. Vollmer and "Diseases of Lilium longiflorum in Bermuda" by L. Ogilvie. This serves to show how all-embracing is the geographic field covered by the "Lily Year Book". In order to understand fully how best to grow lilies it is necessary to know as much as possible about their natural habitat, the type of plants they are associated with, the character of the soil and the climate; the first two articles give us certain of these basic facts. Secondly it is desirable to know how lilies grow in cultivation not only in England but in other countries and the next two articles give us facts in this connection.
Other writers deal with problems of propagation, of the arrangement and structure of the chromosomes in the reproductive cells, of diseases in stored bulbs and in growing plants, of hybrids and of the cultivation of lilies in gardens and woodlands. Certainly this volume should be in the possession of all who are in any manner interested in the study or culture of lilies.
G. A. C. H.
The Hong Kong Naturalist.
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