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Bulletin - Summer 1979 - North American Rock Garden Society

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ock gardeners have no access and yetwe all want to know what is the latestword on primulas, drabas, dionysias,et al. A work devoted solely to thepurpose of bringing into one sourceall the latest information on new plantswould serve, I think, a real need.What Will Ingwersen has done inthis manual is a curious mixture ofthe old and the new, the extended andlimited, full of first hand and muchsecond hand information. It is certainlynot in the scale of Farrer and Clay.In fact, in the introduction to the work,the author makes clear the purposeof the book."It is our intention that the Manualshould be used in conjunction with ourannual catalogue, which will appeareach year in an abbreviated form. Allplants described in the Manual, ofwhich we have available stocks toinclude in our catalogue, will be listedand priced but not described. In thecase of such families as Aubrieta,Phlox, Helianthemum, etc., of whichthere are so many named cultivars andhybrids, the name of the variety willbe followed by a colour description."Many plants which will be in ourannual catalogue will not appear inthe Manual. For these there will bethe necessarily brief description which,unfortunately, economy now dictates.Bulbs, with certain exceptions, are excludedfrom the Manual, as areHeathers and Conifers although somewhich are truly rock garden shrubsare included, shrubs are also excluded.In any case I did not wish to becomeinvolved in deciding what was, or wasnot, a shrub!"Aside from a single page of "CulturalAdvice" there is little specific informationabout growing or propagatingthe plants listed. Genera are listed alphabeticallyfor easy reference. Thename of each genus is followed byits family designation and a gratuitousand rarely enlightening derivation ofthe generic name, most of the informationfor which the author ingenuouslyadmits he shamelessly cribbed.One cannot help but admire thedevoted efforts of research, and praisethe fine presentation in readable type.There are, as is inevitable in so crowdeda work, a few questionable pieces ofinformation and an occasional carelessnessin editing.Though this work may not be thefirst book of reference to which a rockgardener turns when faced with questionsabout a particular plant, it willfind a place in my library as a sourceI'll turn to when presented with a namelike Gratiola, for instance. — H.L.F.WILDFLOWERS OF THENORTHEASTERN STATESby Frederick W. Case, Jr. 1978, The NewYork Botanical <strong>Garden</strong>; McGraw-HillBook Co., New York, N.Y.; $18.95This book, sponsored by the NewYork Botanical <strong>Garden</strong>, represents anew dimension in book publishing. Itis, in a sense, a multi-media offering,a slide lecture in print, the slides servingto illustrate the wildflowers discussedin the text. It serves as an adjunctto the first volume of the Wild Flowersof the United States, also sponsoredby the New York Botanical <strong>Garden</strong>,and is, we understand, the first in aseries highlighting a selection of thewildflowers covered in the six volumesof that monumental work.It will be interesting to see how thisnovel approach will be accepted. It hasits limitations: the reader-viewer musteither own or borrow a slide vieweror projector so as to enjoy the slidesand it would be difficult, though notimpossible, to do so in conjunctionwith the reading of the text. These140

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