1878.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



251 



pointedly kept in mind. The Rochester ^N'ursery- 

 men behaved very handsomely, and no trouble 

 or expense seemed to be too much to make their 

 visitors remember the week. Points of Horti- 

 cultural interest were visited, and we had a good 

 chance to see how the people enjoyed Horticul- 

 ture, and ill what condition was the nursery trade. 

 As I could only spare a few hours there, I 

 had not the chance to see all the others saw ; 

 but I looked through the nurseries of Gould 

 Brothers, and found them largely engaged in 

 Rose culture, besides the usual items of a gene- 

 ral nursery stock. A beautiful grove of natural 

 timber, just before their " cottage door," makes 

 a call there particularly attractive to the lover 

 ■of cool breezes, on a hot Summer's day. 



Mr. Little's nursery struck me as being particu- 

 larly rich in ornamental trees and shrubs. Whit- 

 ney's Tree Digger, a machine for taking up, entire, 

 large trees, was tried for our benefit, on some 

 six-feet Balsam Firs, and ten-year old Maples. 

 It would have been no defeat if Whitney had 

 been overcome in such a test as this, but the 

 "machine went right through. 



Mr. Hooker's nurseries are strong in special- 

 ties. He is working up the Early Dawn Grape, 

 which pleased so many last year at Baltimore. 

 His connection with the Brighton Grape is also 

 well-known. He also has extensive trial-grounds 

 •of Gooseberries, and is working up great quanti- 

 ties of some of the most approved kinds. The 

 grafted Gooseberries and Currants which was so 

 •attractive at the Centennial Exhibition, were 

 ■also growing here ; and besides this there was 

 the usual variety of nursery stock. 



Mr. Vick's grounds abounded with llowers. I 

 never saw so many pansies in one lot together, 

 and scores of hands were collecting the seeds. 



EUwanger & Barry's grounds always charm, 

 by the " Specimen " and " Home-grounds," 

 which are so highly kept, and very instructive. 

 The lawn is beautiful ; and a story is told of one 

 •of the visitors who shook the ashes, and finally 

 the stump of his cigar into his hat, rather than 

 •soil the elegant green carpet he was walking on. 

 An excellent tribute to Western good manners! 

 for I have not always found smokers as careful 

 of a real good carpet as my friend was of this 

 beautiful lawn. E. & B's strong point seemed 

 to me to be in fruit trees. Hundreds of acres of 

 these were in capital condition, the Pears especi- 

 ally so. 



Of the private grounds, Mr. Ellwanger's is 

 'Charming. I never saw a small place more 



beautifully designed, and the design more capi- 

 tally executed. It would not do to say that a 

 good landscape gardener was spoiled to make a 

 nurseryman, for Mr. E.'s success in the one has 

 been as great as in the other. 



The love of flowers, trees, grass, &c., is very 

 general about Rochester, but, perhaps the mis- 

 fortune of my hasty run, I saw no remarkable 

 garden designs. I should judge there are but 

 few such specimens of true garden art, as is seen 

 at Mr. Ellwanger's. But the evident general love 

 of being "nice" in the floral way, is a good 

 foundation to build real garden art upon. 



And the people are quite liberal with their 

 gardens. I was shown, by the kindness Mr. W. 

 C. Barry, through many private grounds of from 

 five to twenty acres, which were freely open to 

 all well-conducted persons. Indeed this com- 

 munity of garden pleasures is a marked feature 

 of Rochester. The houses are mostly set back 

 from the street, and there being no fences, the 

 lawns run down to the side-walks. I cannot say 

 that I admire the plan. The generosity which 

 makes one's grounds aid in the general beauty 

 of a city is highly creditable to public spirit ; but 

 our idea of a garden is something to retire into, 

 and enjoy in quiet contemplation ; and to have 

 instead all this in the full public glare, where 

 you cannot even cut a rose bud, have a quiet 

 game of croquet, or even sit in a hammock and 

 swing with your wife or sweetheart, without 

 being a target for public gaze, is not our idea of 

 a garden, whatever it may be of a public park. 

 Those who carefully exclude every vestige of 

 their inner life from the public in their garden 

 work, are not to my taste either ; but then there 

 is a great difference between this and showing 

 everything for nothing. 



Virginian Jasmine. — Under this name, La 

 Fontaine, an elegant French writer, refers to a 

 climbing plant, which has "rosy flowers of the 

 form of a fox-glove," and in which flowers a 

 beautiful insect is born with their blossoming, 

 the insect at once dying on their decay. Can 

 any of our readers say what plant is referred to 

 under this name, and what foundation there may 

 be for the entomological part of the story? 

 Another French author refers to the "Persian 

 Jasmine uniting with the Virginian to cover our 

 arbors and embellish our groves." 



Amekican and Hardy Ferns. — In connec- 

 tion with the remarks made in our magazine 

 recently on the growing fondness of American 



