ARISTOCRATS OF THE GARDEN By E. H. Wilson
The name of E. H. Wilson stands very high in the list of great nineteenth- century gardeners. Wilson was, how- ever, as the index to this volume (Williams and Norgate. xis.) shows, something more than a mere gardener. Lecturer at Kew, assistant at the Imperial Institute, iCeeper of the Arnold Arboretum, he was also a highly success- ful explorer. First commissioned by Messrs. Veitch to go to China in 1899, he made in that and subsequent expedi- tions many rich discoveries, among them Davidia involucrata (hopelessly mis- spelt on the wrapper of this book), the fascinating story of which he relates here. But only figures, perhaps, can give a true idea of Wilson's achievement : his contributions to the herbariums of the world number over 16,000 ; over a thousand plants which he introduced were previously unknown to cultivation ; over sixty Chinese species bear his name. The twelve-page index to this book is itself encyclopaedic. Lilies, coton- easters, berberids, magnolias, loniceras, roses and viburnums, almost all out of the common, are here reviewed in dozens. The writing is good without being distinguished, authoritative, quite without nonsense. There are chapters, full of information, on flowering trees and shrubs, conifers, Chinese trees and shrubs, Japanese cherries and Asiatic crabs, rhododendrons, lilacs, and lilies. The last is meaty and revolutionary and should, coming from the man who dis- covered the now famous Regale, carry great weight. As a work of practical as well as aesthetic value Aristocrats of the Garden is, in fact, first class. The pity of it is that it should be Wilson's memorial; he :Was Mb*" Et, P.201°r accident in 1930.
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