Abstract
MR. HIBBERD is a practised writer on gardening subjects, though his books have not much claim to be considered as scientific treatises, but rather as pretty gift-books to lie on the drawing-room table and give to its furniture a quasi-scientific air. That they have their use cannot be doubted, but it is not a very high one. The worst part of this book is the illustrations. From the letterpress may be doubtless culled some useful hints as to the planting and management of a flower-garden, though we do not think it equal in this respect to some other works, such as those by Mr. Robinson, which are less under the trammels of time-honoured prejudices and superstitions. But many of the illustrations, including some of the woodcuts and nearly all the coloured plates, are simply atrocious. The drawings of a show pelargonium (p. 80), pansy (p. 45), ranunculus (p. 156), carnation (p. 117), and some others, are mere caricatures, and unworthy of a place in any work which bears the least pretensions to a scientific character.
The Amateur's Flower-Garden: a Handy Guide to the Formation and Management of the Flower Garden and the Cultivation of Garden Flowers.
By Shirley Hibberd. Illustrated with coloured plates and wood engravings. (London: Groombridge and Son, 1871.)
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[Book Reviews]. Nature 5, 363 (1872). https://doi.org/10.1038/005363b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/005363b0