About Orchids. By Frederick Boyle. (Chapman and Hall.)— Horticulture owes
a debt to the thorough manner in which Mr. Boyle dissipates the exaggerated ideas most people have as to the price of orchids. Mr. Boyle grows them most successfully him- self—that is, certain varieties—and there is no reason why any householder should not be able to do likewise. What he did with the limited space in his garden was astonishing. He has much that is interesting to tell us about the history and fluctuations in price attending famous bulbs. Even the tulip was hardly such a "sporting" vegetable as the uncertain orchid, whose behaviour and slowness of development prolongs the excitement attaching to certain growths. The ruthless way in which forests are ravaged, and even private gardens, must, we think, come to an end ; the destruction of timber in Central America for the sake of getting a certain orchid in every third tree cannot be permitted by reasonable people. The pursuit is wasteful in the extreme, for a district may be cleared of a particular bulb, yet not one may reach England alive. Mr. Boyle's book will be a fascinating one to lovers of flowers, and forms a capital introduction to practical manuals.
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