l8 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



uniform outlines, and I know not how many intricate aesthetic questions. 

 For Landscape Gardenin<^ is painting in living colors. Longfellow 

 addressing the children at their play, said 



'• Ye are better than all the poems 

 That were ever sung or said, 



For vc are the living poems, 

 And all the rest are dead." 

 Landscape Gardening is better than the painter's work in the same way. 

 It is the reality of which the other is but the shadow. And, though the 

 breadth of surface and the means of carrying out its more elaborate de- 

 signs are generally beyond private means, there is yet a great neglect of 

 what might be done easily and cheaply, with only a little foresight and 

 thought. A little clump of trees planted on an eminence, costs but a few 

 dollars, yet it may be a point of beauty in the landscape, for a lifetime. 

 A chance elm that has sprung up in a distant corner of the farm, may 

 be staked about and protected in a few minutes time, yet hangs like 

 a green cloud on the horizon for long years to come. Still more will a 

 little work eflect great things in the clearing of woodlands, as the reader 

 of Mr. Sargent's experience in his edition of Downing's Landscape 

 Gardening may see. The trees that may be saved, and in one way or 

 another made to subserve the adornment of a home, are grown for our 

 purpose and we gain a generation's time, and see with the eyes of our 

 children. 



Chevreul, in his Laws of Contrast of Color, gives some applications 

 to Horticulture to which I am sorry to be only able to call your attention 

 at this time. It is the first attempt I have seen to instruct us in the 

 harmonies and contrasts of color and shades of color, &c., in landscape 

 gardening. 



III. 



Scientific Horticulture, 



if I may be allowed that expression, is carried on with the priinaiy 

 purpose of increasing knowledge. It aims at the truth, whilst Orna- 

 mental Horticulture seeks the beautiful, and Useful Horticultiu'e the good. 

 I. Of Fruits we already have fine collections begun in our State by 

 Mr. E. H. Skinner of Rockford, A. M. Lawver of South Pass, our Indus- 

 h'ial University, and others. The University has 1,200 varieties of apples, 

 and has just received scions of 400 varieties of pears. A late telegram 

 informs us that Commissioner Capron of the Agricultural Department 

 has received scions of 400 varieties of Russian apples. I have applied, 

 on behalf of this Society and of the Industrial University, for specimens 

 of them, and hope that we may be favored. 



2. Vegetable collections are less numerous in the West, so far 

 as I am acquainted ; but our horticultural friends in Massachusetts and 

 other Eastern States seem to have made large collections and compar- 

 isons of the varieties of the potato, bean, pea, &c, 



3. Collections of Trees are begun and form an attractive pursuit to 

 many minds. Arranged botanically, even a single straight row of trees, 

 representing the more common and hardy species, may be made in- 

 structive and interesting. The arboretum of the grounds of the Depart- 



