56 



THE GARDENERS' MONTHLY 



[February, 



Literature, Travels and Personal Notes. 



COMMUNICATIONS. 



BITS OF REMINISCENCES. 



BY WM. T. HARDING. 



'■ And when the weary traveler gahis 

 Tlie height of some commanding hill, 

 His heart revives, if o'er tlie plains 

 He sees his home, though dist.ant still." 



And thus, in the florid diction of the poet, is de- 

 scribed the power of imagination, combined with 

 happy memories, which fondly chng to the past, 

 and remain with us still. And in ideality the 

 writer again sees from " the height of some com- 

 manding hill" an antiquated garden, once famous 

 for the number of remarkable topiarian treasures 

 it contained, of holly, box and yew, which our in- 

 genious ancestors had trimmed into many peculiar 

 forms. And the lasting impressions they made 

 upon the plastic mind of the boy, who, as a favor, 

 was often admitted to see them, are as vivid now, 

 after so many long years, as though they were 

 actually still in view. While perhaps the most as- 

 tonishing examples of that ancient art were two 

 heroic sized topiarian marvels, adroitly shaped 

 into the exact resemblance of Mercury, the winged 

 messenger; and Atlas, with the globe poised on 

 his shoulders ; of which not a vestige now remains. 

 And in the rear of these curious living green 

 sculptured bushes, stood an old, heavy timbered 

 greenhouse, glazed with narrow panes of semi- 

 opaque glass, cut into every conceivable form — 

 except square. Apparently, most of the early 

 structures of this kind were glazed with waste 

 window-glass, cut from the rough and wavy out- 

 sides of the circular crystal tables, or sheets, as 

 the glass-blowers produced them in those days, 

 when windows were taxed. Growing within this 

 archaic plant-house, were the meagre types or 

 progenitors of some of our highly developed class 

 of flowering plants, so indispensable for summer 

 decoration in the beds and borders about our 

 pleasure grounds now. And, as through the men- 

 tal vision their comely features are seen again, one 

 feels amazed at the wonderful change which has 

 been gradually taking place since then. In reality, 

 they are floral links which bind the present to the 

 past. And yet, notwithstanding, no conjurer's 

 transformation tricks could ever be more astonish- 



ing, or complete, when touched with the en- 

 chanter's wand, than Time, the subtle alchemist 

 has performed in the domain of horticulture, 

 within our recollection. 



And there are many, whose brows are not yet 

 furrowed, neither are their heads crowned with 

 gray, who practice the " art which doth mend na- 

 ture ; change it rather " — who can remember the 

 poor little posies, which pleased them less than 

 fifty years ago. While old graybeards, whose 

 memories run still further back, will not have 

 forgotten the time when very meek little flowers 

 with even less pretensions, had their day, and were 

 considered "most beautiful things." 



"Our rural ancestors with little blessed," possi- 

 bly experienced as much pleasure in their quaint 

 old gardens, while cultivating or " culling simples" 

 and flowers, long before the advent of the modern 

 grand displays were dreamt of, though happily 

 now so common to us in this our glorious age of 

 flowers. 



When looking back at the very brief lists of bed- 

 i ding stuff, which comprised the stock of first-class 

 ' places "in the days of auld lang syne," we natur- 

 ally wonder how they made out with so few things 

 for ornamentation, compared with what we now- 

 a-days have at our command. But if the gentle 

 readers will consult the horticultural pages of the 

 past, and examine the pictures which illustrated 

 some of the famous places of the period, they will 

 be equally surprised and delighted with the pleas- 

 ing, and oftentimes picturesque effects, the liberal 

 use of herbaceous plants gave to the scene. These 

 much neglected flowers, with the aid of old-fash- 

 ioned annuals, sown in clumps and patches among 

 them, never failed to make a goodly show, and 

 give delight to those who loved them. 



To exemplify, without" amplifying examples, 

 three species of plants are selected as fair repre- 

 sentatives of what were then considered fully up to 

 the regulation standard of perfection ; to show 

 how they compare with similar species, in this our 

 year of grace, namely,— Cinerarias, Calceolarias, 

 and Petunias. 



Calceolarias, of both shrubby and herbaceous 



kinds, with mostly puny sulphur colored flowers, 



! a few of which were irregularly spotted with brown 



