Agriculture and Horticulture

Abstract

THIS book has been written as an aid to the gardener or lover of flowers who desires to learn something about the scientific as well as the cultural aspects of the tulip. An account of the life-cycle of plants of the genus is followed by nine other chapters concerned with the history, taxonomy, sporting, hybridisation, and cultivation of wild species and garden races. The chapter on taxonomy is the most interesting botanically, and it is much to be regretted that it is not more complete. The importance of cytological data is well emphasised, and since diploid, triploid, tetraploid, and pentaploid tulips have been recognised as species, knowledge of the chromosome numbers is an aid to both the systematist and the breeder of new horticultural races. The best known species are briefly described, some account is given of their distribution, and cultural details are provided. The value of this chapter would have been much increased had an artificial key to the accepted species been added.

The Book of the Tulip.

By Sir A. Daniel Hall. Pp. 224 + 24 plates. (London: Martin Hopkinson, Ltd., 1929.) 21s. net.