1885.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



379 



specimens of the rare Bonaparte plants, — curious 

 as well as rare from the narrow, slender trunks 

 rising from huge, bottle-lilce bases. Mr. Childs is 

 fond of the very pleasant practice of having his 

 guests plant memorial trees, and on this plateau is 

 a purple beech set out by Madame Nillson, and 

 there are other pretty trees planted by General 

 Grant, Senator ISayard, Thomas Hughes, Robert 

 Winthrop, Hamilton Fish, and others. The 

 original design for this part of the ground was, in 

 the main, we believe, the work of Mr. Miller. In 

 1883 other grounds were purchased and taken 

 into the ornamental grounds, and these, with the 

 improvement and care of the older portion, have 

 since been under Mr. Hughes' charge. In this 

 newer portion we find the vegetable garden, green- 

 houses, forcing houses and other departments 

 requiring concentrated care and oversight. It is 

 interesting to note that cut flowers, once a neces- 

 sity chiefly with those who had no living plants or 

 conservatories, have become essentials to every 

 cultivated home, and here quite a large rose-house 

 was being built to furnish the family the floral 

 queen through the winter months. The vegetable 

 garden was a special treat to us, especially from 

 the profusion of old-fashioned hardy herbaceous 

 plants, which filled box-edged borders as in 

 "ye olden time." A beautiful hedge of Japan 

 privet divides a well-kept rosary from the kitchen 

 garden, and the stables are screened by a well- 

 arranged " stumpery " made from the roots of the 

 forest trees that a few years ago occupied the 

 ground. 



The water for the plant houses, stables and 

 other offices is pumped from an adjacent spring, 

 very cheaply by means of an overshot wheel. 

 That required for the mansion house is pumped 



by means of an Erricson engine, which does its 

 work in a thorough manner. 



The illuminating gas required about the build- 

 ing is manufactured at a comparatively low 

 figure from gasoline. 



A very pretty feature of the utility department 

 is the dairy, of which an illustration appears on 

 the top of the picture. This is built of pure white 



quartz, and set over a perennial spring, the water 

 flowing to the floor over a huge and beautiful 

 shell brought from Japan by General Grant. The 

 floor is paved with encaustic tile, and the whole is 

 "just too lovely for anything." One might fancy 

 that even sour cream would taste sweet if from a 

 beautiful room like this. 



With the author of" Suburban Home Grounds," 

 the subject of our frontispiece, and these illustra- 

 tions of good landscape gardening, we have a 

 good landscape gardening number. We hope it 

 will stimulate effort in that direction, as much of 

 the pleasure of gardening dwells in beautiful 

 grounds. 



A Fraud and His Partners. — The Editor of 

 the New England Homestead kindly informs us 

 that some scamp is pretending to be a corre- 

 spondent of our two papers, and " for a considera- 

 tion," will insert in his correspondence a "puff" of 

 their establishments. 



Parties who sell counterfeit money and then 

 cheat their dupes out of money advanced, by 

 giving them nothing, are safe because they know 

 that the intention of their dupes to be a party to 

 the fraud, would criminate the dupes if knosvn. 

 They keep quiet, for no one sympathizes with them 

 when the facts are known. 



So with these dupes, any man who pays for a 

 puff in an article intended to appear as reading 

 matter, is a party to a fraud and ought to suffer. 



But is it not wonderful that anybody will give 

 money to a stranger for any purpose whatever ? 



Ridiculous Names for Fruits.— Big Rob's 

 Baby is the latest specimen. Next we would sug- 

 gest Big Bob's Baby's Boot, for of course it must 

 be alliterative. Then when some rival thinks he 

 has something better than this raiser has given us, 

 it can be called "The Buster of Big Bob's Baby's 

 Boot," or some such expressive cognomen ; or Big 

 Bob's Baby's Boot Badly Broken. 



A Fungoid Disease. — It is wonderful how an 

 error once started, becomes prevalent, even among 

 those who should know better. As the word " a 

 fungoid disease " fell from the lips of the Editor 

 some years ago. Prof. C. V. Riley, who was at his 

 elbow remarked " why do you say fungoid dis- 

 ease ?" 



There has been no need for Prof. Riley or any 

 other person to ask that question of the Editor 

 since. But we see it in works in the old world, of 

 the highest scientific pretensions ; "a fungoid dis- 

 ease" means a disease resembling a fungus. It is 

 the intention to say a disease originating through 



