346 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[Norember, 



The Norway Sjinn'cs I s:iw licro \von> ninoiig 

 the best I fouiul in En;j:IaiHl, iiiui I tnkotho occa- 

 sion to say thatl rarely find this or innst of tlie 

 Conifcra do as well in England as in America. 

 Aa coniparcd with our trees, I can scarcely say I 

 saw one beautiful Norway Spruce in all Eng- 

 land. When we come to the kinds from our 

 Pacific coast, they have much the advantage of 

 us, and here let me say that I think if we, east of 

 the Rocky Mountains, would grow these Pacific 

 trees at all well, we must plant them in shel- 

 tered woods and half-shady places. I know 

 I shall be told they grow in the open in their 

 own country, but I do not care about that. 



The Senior Wood was away to the Alexandra 

 Rose Show, and I found that most of the lead- 

 ing nurserymen of England took great interestin 

 all these public exhibitions. But I was happy in 

 finding the young scions from the old tree, 

 quite as likely to bring forth as good horticultu- 

 ral fruit as their time-honored parent, and they 

 were very kind to me. There are other interest- 

 ing nurseries and gardens in the vicinity on 

 which I may remark another time, but I must 

 8 '.op now. 



Gardening around Nashville, Tennessee. — 

 In August we had the chance (5f a run through 

 Kentucky and Tennessee, and were much grati- 

 fied by various signs of revival in gardening. 

 Before the war the great bulk of the readers of 

 the Gardener's Monthly were in the South, and 

 we could still find remains of our old time work. 

 The American Association was in session at 

 Nashville, and a paper read by Miss Ingram, of 

 Edgefield, reminded one of the opinion of 

 Major Hardee, of Florida, that insects could be 

 destroyed in orchards by firing ofl" guns. The 

 lady is sure that disease germs can be destroyed 

 by concussion, and an explosion of gun-powder 

 will destroy insects. The idea may not be of 

 great value to fruit growers, but certainly there 

 is a germ of truth in it, and how ftir it may be 

 practically effective is for experiment to deter- 

 mine. Nashville is a beautiful town. It is 

 a continuous succession of hill and dale. The 

 prevailing street tree is Paper Mulberry, and 

 they are numerously planted. Once in a while 

 there are a few Silver Maples. The Black Sugar 

 Maple thrives well, but the northern species 

 does not. Gardening is not of course what it 

 was before the war. In the older places we 

 can see how well it was patronized; but 

 though many of the old roads and walks in gar- 



dens are now so grass-grown that we can hardly 

 see them, the grand old trees grouped with great 

 artistic efi'ect show what the art has been. 

 There are many smaller and newer j^laces, how- 

 over, that show considerable taste both in i)lant- 

 ing and fioral adornment. One of the prettiest 

 and best kept grounds I saw was the State Hos- 

 pital for the Insane. The original laying out of 

 the grounds was very fine, and the spirit of it all 

 has been preserved. It is too often the fault to 

 add without judgment until the original design 

 is lost. The plant-houses had many nice plants, 

 healthy and well grown ; but the Victoria Regia, 

 so long the only one in the country, perished 

 last Winter. The Winter was one of unusual 

 severity for these parts, killing even the English 

 Ivy on the walls ; and the new experience proved 

 fatal to the Royal Water Plant. But the 

 house is here, and no doubt a new plant will be 

 started next year. A beautiful sight was the 

 Cissus discolor, growing on the wall resigned by 

 the Ivy. Of course it is only a summer beauty. 

 Wh}' do we not oftener employ it this way in the 

 North ?■ It would make an admirable edging to 

 a flower bed. Dr. Callender, who has charge of 

 the Institution, has excellent horticultural taste. 



The Vanderbilt University has for its gardener 

 Mr. Douglas, an excellent selection, as he is one 

 of the intelligent class that it is alwaj-s a pleas- 

 ure to meet. The planting had been very suc- 

 cessful indeed. The dead and half dead sticks 

 we so often meet with in public grounds near 

 home, being entirely wanting; and this is the 

 more remarkable, as of the many thousand trees 

 planted here by Mr. Douglas, they were all from 

 the woods. It is a case of skill against great dis- 

 advantages. The trees are planted promiscu- 

 ously everywhere about the grounds : and this 

 will give a good chance to some future landscape 

 gardener to cut out Secundum artem, which, by a 

 reference to a dictionary of Latin quotations, we 

 find means " according to the rules of art." As 

 it is now the custom to use French and Latin 

 phrases instead of the good old Saxon words in 

 English composition, we may as well be in the 

 fashion for just this once! The gardens around 

 the dwellings of the professors were gay with 

 flowers, and the grass and walks kept up in right 

 good taste. The location is beautiful, and we 

 have no doubt good gardening will grow on it 

 with the years that are to come. 



Dr. Cheatham's beautiful grounds at Belmont, 

 so famous before the war, are beautiful still, and 

 with characteristic liberality the proprietor 



