300 ILLINOIS STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



JUNE MEETING. 



At a meeting of the Society, held at the residence of Prof. Standish, 

 Jane 6th, the following paper on Home Adornment was read by Prof. 



COMSTOCK : 



Home adornment is so extensive a subject that I can, in the few 

 moments allotted to me, do no more than mention a few points. We may 

 first define the term. To adorn, is to embellish ; to ornament, is to 

 beautify; but, inasmuch as this is a Horticultural Society, whatever per- 

 tains to architecture, painting, and the plain arts in general, is excluded 

 from the discussion. Home adornment for us, then, will refer to orna- 

 mentation by the cultivation of trees and plants. The building of con- 

 servatories might be included ; but we will leave that for the few, and 

 devote ourselves to what interests the many. Landscape gardening might 

 be made our theme; but there is so little opportunity for the practice of 

 that art on an extended scale, that we direct that subject to those partic- 

 ularly interested. But, with all these limitations, we find it difficult to 

 approach our subject, owing to the wider distinctions between the houses, 

 even in our own city, to say nothing of the country in general. An orna- 

 mentation is something added, not for use, but for the sake of beauty. 

 The man who planted his fruit yard full of current bushes, did nothing in 

 the way of adornment, though a nicely trained currant bush, with its 

 garnet-colored fruit, has some claim to be called beautiful. Neither do 

 apple trees, beautiful as they are when in blossom, serve to adorn a home. 

 Anything chiefly useful cannot be used for purposes of adornment. To 

 surround a house with a meadow, from which the grass is cut for hay, is 

 not adornment. I suppose the practical thing for us to do, is to discover 

 what to plant in our small door-yards and grounds which shall serve to 

 make the surroundings of our homes in some sense beautiful. To begin, 

 then. A lawn is well-nigh indispensable, not for profit, but to be kept 

 well shaven till the grass becomes fine and velvety. Such a plot of 

 ground, with its edges sharply defined, is like an emerald in the setting of 

 a home. Shade trees, properly placed, so as not to prevent the growth of 

 the grass and necessary plants, are indispensable. The elm, the cucumber, 

 the tulip and the sugar tree may be named first on the list. I place the 

 rose first on the list of shrubs, then the spiraeas, syringas or Philadelphia 

 lilacs, fringe trees, Italian honeysuckle, etc. Then perennial herbaceous 

 plants, as peony, dicentra, pinks, sweet-williams. I name plants that are 

 within the reach of everybody. A bed of verbenas and a few geraniums, 

 and the varieties of coleus, set-off the grounds finely. These lists may be 

 indefinitely extended, the limits being the purse and the size of the planta- 

 tion. The trouble is not being able to find enough, but in the other direc- 

 tion. We all plant at least two or three times as many trees, etc., as the 

 ground will support, expecting to remove one and another as they become 

 crowded ; and then we have not nerve enough to cut down what have 

 become favorites after years of cultivation and care. Thus, trees are 

 crowding and injuring each other in our yards, and in our parks, and 



