12 MAY 1950, Page 20

In the Garden Catalogues may be very attractive things in

themselves. One of the best is the two-shilling catalogue issued by the Cambridge University Press of the flower-books exhibited by the National Book League, and organised by Mr. Wilfrid Blunt. Apart from the charm of the pictures (not least of the carnations in colour that open the catalogue) here is a history of flower-illustration from, say, Amadio's Herbal of 1415 A.D. Pliny alludes to illustrated herbals preceding his date; but the pictures have not survived, and Amadio's date may be taken as a beginning of the modern art. It was praised by Ruskin with his usual vehemence and cursing of "our modern mechanical schools."

W. BEA,CH THOMAS.