iSSs.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



313 



worshipping at Our Lady's shrine, fell dead, and 

 irom his mouth, eyes, and ears roses sprang. 



Mediaeval art is strewn with flowers from the 

 garden of Our Lady. In pictures of the Annuncia 

 tion, Gabriel presents the Virgin with the lily, the 

 Fleur de Marie; sometimes the olive is substi- 

 tuted; more rarely the palm. In the Visitation 

 we see her in the garden of Zacharias, where, it is 

 said, she once touched with her finger a scentless 

 flower, and immediately it emitted the most de- 

 licious perfume. In the flight to Egypt the palms 

 bent to offer shade to the Mother and Child. 



It has been difficult to keep within the borders 

 of Our Lady's Garden ; for. outside, are other 

 gardens rich in religious, poetic, and mythic asso- 

 ciations ; gardens of the Saviour and the Saints; 

 lovely parterres dedicated to Iranian, Egyptian, 

 Greek, Roman, Scandinavian and American 

 deities. In whatever geological age man first ap- 

 peared, flowers were already blooming to welcome 

 him. The study of primitive culture and folk lore 

 has revealed to us the awe, the honor and the 

 adoration in which the floral world was held ; 

 and, though flowers have lost the prestige of the 

 possession of magical powers, the magic of their 

 loveliness will never fade, and, the profounder the 

 intellect of man, the more tenderly will they kin- 

 dle in him, "thoughts that lie too deep for tears." 

 — In Independent. Norton, Mass. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



A, Monument to General Grant. — Land- 

 scape gardeners contend that their art is equal to 

 any, and are a little sensitive that they seldom re- 

 ceive the homage which the artist in general re- 

 ceives from society. There is no doubt that if an 

 artist is to be born and not made by mere culture 

 or education, as it is so often contended he should 

 be and must be, we may expect to see him cradled 

 in a garden oftener than elsewhere. Unfortun- 

 ately the artist, though garden-born, forgets his 

 nativity ; and when there is a good chance to do 

 honor to his birthright he rarely gives landscape 

 gardening a thought. No wonder society under- 

 rates the landscape gardener. Just now the coun- 

 try is exercised over a proper monument to General 

 Grant. It is the theme of many a pen, and every 

 large city is discussing it from many a point of 

 ' view. We notice eminent landscape gardeners 

 like Vaux having their say with the rest. But no 

 one goes beyond stone or brass, though most 

 admit that nearly all memorials of this kind have 



been sad failures. They are not truly artistic it 

 is contended. The high art desired by the mem- 

 orialists is seldom brought to life in the monu- 

 ment. Ugliness reigns where beauty sought a 

 throne. Now if high art is to be claimed by land- 

 scape gardening, why not exemplify it by a Grant 

 Memorial Park or public garden, which in real 

 artistic beauty should rival the public gardens of 

 the whole world ? Such an idea would be strictly 

 in keeping with the memory of the great name we 

 would perpetuate. Even those who fought, bled, 

 and suffered for the cause that was lost, never be- 

 lieved that it was best that there should be two 

 powerful nations watching each other side by side 

 on this continent. To them it was but a sad al- 

 ternative that fate seemed to decide for them. 

 Honestly but sadly they struck the blow which 

 eventually crushed themselves. Still, amidst the 

 sorrows which it is unnatural to suppose can yet 

 have wholly passed away, even they rejoice that 

 one great country has been preserved to us and 

 that the standing armies and intolerable burdens 

 that would have had to be borne by the jealousies 

 of two great and neighboring nations, may now 

 be expended in the arts of peace in which garden- 

 ing has so great a share. We would not to-day 

 enjoy as we are now doing the pleasures which 

 gardening gives us but for the great military talent 

 which kept this country one. Peace could render 

 no greater tribute to war which by its successful 

 ending made the reign of peace possible than that 

 which would be embodied in a memorial garden. 

 The hand of a genius in landscape gardening 

 could make everything tell of the greatness that 

 brought it into existence. The Grant drive should 

 out-grandeur all the other drives ; the Grant foun- 

 tain laugh forth its bubbling waters louder than 

 us sisters ; and Grant arches. Grant vases. Grant 

 arbors, and especial Grant gardens in the one 

 great park, all executed with the skill that charms 

 and yet perpetuates, would make the name of 

 Gr.Tnt a blessing to thousands; whWe ihe Semper 

 pcrpetua sought after in the marble quarry or 

 striven for in the foundry would return to earth 

 again long before the garden's death. An an- 

 archial mob threw down the Vendome column, 

 and a few pounds of dynamite from the hands of 

 some insensate may send the Arc de Triomphe in 

 a few moments to the grave of ruin ; but no in- 

 vader, no enemy from within or without, could 

 destroy a garden like that beyond a fair recovery. 

 But will such a Grant testimonial come ? We 

 fear not. As we have said, there seems to be no 

 great artist in landscape gardening at present that 



