ROSES FOR ENGLISH GARDENS.
Roses for English Gardens. By Gertrude Jekyll and E. MawleY. (The Country Life Library. 12s. 6d. net.)—It is perhaps churlish to complain of having too much of a good thing, but the illustrations in Miss Jekyll and Mr. Mawley's rose-book are so numerous as to be quite distracting. The intelligent reader turns, for instance, to the chapter on " Rose Pillars," and thinks to imbibe all Miss Jekyll's wisdom on this subject,—for, like Professor Jowett, what she does not know "isn't knowledge." Hardly has one half-page been read when in the very middle of a sentence come ten pages of illustrations in a row, and the true gardener cries with Prince Hal, "But a ha'porth of bread to all this intolerable quantity of sack !" Who can carry the thread of a discourse through ten pages of rapid skipping? Opinions, of course, differ as to the beauty of roses as subjects for black-and-white illustration, but at any rate these pictures give the reader the opportunity of seeing what the queen of flowers would be without her colour and without her scent. To a patient person, who is net too greatly aggravated by the illustration-skipping process, the book will be good reading. Miss Jekyll for sixteen chapters treats her subject in the "literary-garden" style, while Mr.' Mawley in the remain- ing seven chapters gives excellent hints on the technique of rose- growing, especially with regard to exhibiting.
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