1880.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



153 



Literature, Travels I Personal Notes. 



COMMUNICA TIONS. 



NOTES AND QUERIES-No. 12. 



BY JACQUES. 



Books and Flowers. — I can tolerate life said a 

 would-be philosopher, if I have abundance of 

 books and flowers, and he was not far wrong. 

 Somebody makes the following verse : 



"The hunter a fawn to Diana will slay ; 



The maiden, with roses will cast to the hours, — 

 But the wise man will ask ere oblation he pay 



For a house full of books, and a garden of flowers." 



But the " envoi" of the writer in the Interna- 

 tional Review is this : 



" Gods, give or withhold it ! Your yea and your ' nay,' 



Are implacable, scornful murmurs of ours, 

 What is life ? 'tis not here you can bribe me to stay 

 For a house full of books, and a garden of flowers. ' 



Gardening in its higher sense, is both an art 

 and a science. It has arrived at this estate by 

 gradation, — slow compared with the develop- 

 ment of many other pursuits ; but that is conse- 

 quent upon the complex nature of its parts. 

 The development of a knowledge of geology, 

 chemistry, meteorology, vegetable physiology, 

 and botany — indeed something from all human 

 learning has gone to perfect the science of Ag- 

 riculture and Horticulture, — pursuits affording as 

 wide a range of research in their ramifications 

 as any topic occuping the mind of man, and as 

 important in their results as any occupation of 

 man. Gardening, which is agriculture upon cir- 

 cumscribed spaces, has ever shared with the lat- 

 ter the esteem of mankind. Socrates said, " It 

 is the source of health, strength, plenty, riches, 

 and honest pleasure." And an eminent English 

 writer said, "' It is amid its scenes and pursuits 

 that life flows pure, the heart more calmly 

 beats." — Burnett Landreth on Military Post Gar- 

 dens. 



The development of field and garden culture to 

 Its present condition, is the result of the union 

 of theory and practice. The greatest expansion 

 has been in a chemical and physiological point 

 of view, and this development, strange as it may 

 seem, dates back not farther than forty years. — 

 Ibid. 



To Notes and Queries, as well as to the editor 

 of the Monthly, whose strictures are neverthe- 

 less deserving of attention, 1 beg to say that 



after careful examination, the best Cedar of 

 Lebanon at Laurel Hill Cemetery is not yet cut 

 down ; only the second best of the three has 

 been ruthlessly destroyed by ignorance and folly 

 combined. The larger and cone-bearing, was a 

 week ago erect and glorious, but from the same 

 causes may soon be no more. The owner of the 

 lot in which stood the doomed tree, no doubt 

 feels the rebuke ; he had no other right to be re- 

 membered. 



Ajid now; what a pity that accident some- 

 times places ignorant men in care of public in- 

 stitutions. They may ride in their own carri- 

 ages, with horses fed perhaps on the profits of 

 quackery, but are too ignorant to be en- 

 trusted with ornamental places ; they may shoot 

 wild geese — arcades ambo, — and turn out gui- 

 nea fowls to be again wild for sportsmen's folly 

 to be amused at ; but they should be contented 

 with their idleness and preposterous assumption. 

 How differently Kew Garden is managed ; and 

 just here let me read aloud to all Park Commis- 

 sioners, whose law may be good but their prac- 

 tice abominable. Planters of cemeteries and 

 parks should have the enlarged ideas dominant 

 at Kew, where the study is to promote rational 

 recreation and the improvement of taste, from 

 the familiarity with exquisite forms and combi- 

 nation of coloring, aided by the attendant preva- 

 lence of oi'der in every department. Both these 

 public institutions should afford opportunities 

 for culture by examples of all kinds of beauty. 

 That they do not do this is somebody's unpar- 

 donable fault. After ten or more years of bad 

 government, Fairmount Park is found to be 

 overrun with poison vines ! 



Planting a Tree. — A beautiful custom, not 

 too frequently followed, is the placing of a tree 

 for a friend in his own grounds. Queen Victo- 

 ria does this in memory of her visit, and her 

 loyal subjects point it out as one of their preci- 

 ous possessions •, visitors pluck a leaf, press and 

 preserve it. We once knew a pair of old ladies, 

 whose botanical nomenclature was peculiar and 

 attractive. All their plants and trees possessed 

 a value to them as gifts from friends. Mrs. — 

 or Mr. — had presented this and that. A gen- 

 tleman of our acquaintance, much inclined to 

 visitations when in England, is accustomed to 

 ask the privilege of planting a Cedar of Leba- 



