356 



GARDENING. 



Aug.. 13, 



17. Tulip tree. 



18. Oriental spruce. 



19. Douglas spruce. 



20. Abies Cepbalonica. 



21. American elm. 



22. Oriental S3'camore. 



23. Weeping rose-flowered Japan 

 cherry. 



24. American elm. 



25. Salix pentandra. 



26. Group of lemlock spruce. 



27. White leaved linden. 



28. Malus Halkana. 



29. 29. Massed planting of trees and 

 shrubs. 



30. Pin oaks planted fifty feet apart 

 with Carolina poplars planted alter- 

 nately. Poplars, which are of extremely 

 rapid growth, are to be cut out as soon 

 as the pin oaks are of an effective size. 



31. White ash planted fifty feet apart 

 and Carolina poplars planted alternately 

 to be treated as noted above. 



In addition to the above a California 

 privet hedge is planted along both sides 

 of the main entrance driveway and along 

 one side of the driveway paralleling the 

 railroad track. J. WilkInson Elliott. 



Pittsburg, Pa. 



fl COUNTRY ROAD IN THE NORTH CflROLlNfl 

 MOUNTAINS. 



The photograph herewith sent [from 

 which our illustration has been engraved. 

 —Ed.] shows some beautiful foliage effects 

 with rhododendrons and azaleas, and 

 they are entirely natural. You will see 

 that a country road has been cut through 

 the "laurel thicket." as heavy rhododen- 

 dron atjd kalmia giowth is here called. 

 The photograph was taken by Prof Ste- 

 phens of Ann Arbor University, on the 

 beautiful Linville River— really only a 

 small mountain stream— on my property. 



What a beautiful picture this is, to be 

 sure, and what a splendid growth it 

 shows! Alongside of its natural growth 

 and beautv and artificial planting is 

 puerile. A 'woods or park growth like 

 that in Pittsburg would be invaluable; 

 what a glory it would be in Schenley! 

 Hut we can tr\' to imitate it. While a 

 narrow road like that might serve all 

 right as a bridle path it is too limited in 

 width for a carriage road in any except 

 a coun ry woods. The great beauty of 

 the shrubbery when in full bloom can well 

 be imagined, for nowhere do rhododen- 

 drons and azaleas and kalraias grow bet- 

 ter or bloom more lavishly than in these 

 mountains; but even when out of bloom 

 the denseness of the bushes and theirmass 

 of foliage are very pleasing. 



While I have seen some very fine shows 

 of rhododendronsalongthe Pennsylvania 

 Railroad from Altoona to Pittsburg over 

 the mountain pass still one does not see 

 our American Ericaceae in its glory, I 

 think, further north than the mountains 

 of Virginia and even there it does not 

 compare with the grand show made by 

 this order in the Carolina and Tennessee 

 Mountains. We have square miles of it, 

 veritable jungles where the Rhododendron 

 maximum and Kalmia latifolia entirely 

 exclude other undcrgrowths unless it be 

 the graceful Andromeda (Leucothoe) 

 Cateshivi, which is of course a much lower 

 grower than the two foiTuer, which 

 attain an arborescent size of 20 to 30 

 feet and IS inches in diameter. The pur- 

 ple Rhododendron Catawbiense is gener- 

 allj' confined to the mountain tops and 

 higher elevations, usually 5,000 to 6,000 

 feet, and rarely under 4,000 feet above 

 sea level. In its rather local and isolated 

 stations (none oi'tsideof NorthCarolin.-i) 



Rhododendron Vaseyi, the beautiful 

 recently discovered azalea, is apt to be 

 crowded awav from the streams where it 

 delights to make its habitat by the stur- 

 dier R. maximum and Kalmia latifolia, 

 and luxuriates on the edges of the 

 "laurels" and the hillsides above even to 

 the summit; under these circumstances I 

 have found it growing at the low eleva- 

 tion of 2,500 feet and again 6,000 feet up 

 in the clouds capping the extreme summit 

 of the dark balsam-clothed Grandfather 

 Mountain with its precocious masses of 

 delicate white and pink clusters on naked 

 stems, to be followed in order named by 

 R. Catawbiense, Kalmia latifolia, R. 

 maximum, and lower down Azalea 

 calendulacea and A. viscosa with R. 

 punctatum, the pretty small pink species 

 having blossomed before the Catawbi- 

 ense on the wilder ledges and in the 

 crevices of bare cliffs. 



Two thousand feet lower down A. 

 nudiHora has blossomed at the time of 

 Vaseyi and A. viscosa is to be found 

 everywhere, at home near our sandy sea 

 shore and equally so on the highest 

 mountain tops, its time of blooming 

 depending of course on its elevation, with 

 us in July, lower down in May. The pink 

 stamened A. arborescens inhabits the 

 banks of streams and is again found on 

 some of our highest mountain tops; the 

 exquisite odor of this azalea alone places 

 it among our most desirable shrubs were 

 it not for the foliage, which is the finest 

 of any cultivated azalea, native or exotic; 

 the beautiful large clusters of white flow- 

 ers are rather shyly disposed unfortu- 

 nately beneath the new annual shoots 

 and loliage, a fault we can forgive inas- 

 much as it blossoms after all the other 

 azaleas have formed quite respectable 

 sized seed pods. For fine landscape work 

 the value of this specits cannot be over 

 estimated; and for this use I would rank 

 it with if not above the gorgeous floA- 

 ered A. calendulacea or "flame-colored 

 azalea" as it is justly called on account of 

 its brilliantly-colored flowers, which run 

 the gamut of color from light orange to 

 deep crimson, making our hillsides aflame 

 during parts of June and July. 



While the wild native beauty and 

 superb growth of our Carolina rhododen- 

 drons and azaleas can hardly be trans- 

 planted in its full glory to the confines of 

 the city park or private grounds still by 

 proper preparation of soil and good care, 

 following out as much as possible the 

 teachings of nature, there is no reason 

 why the most sanguine expectations in 

 eflects may not be realized, if one will 

 only forget the conventional in arrange- 

 ment and plant so as to reproduce some 

 of the varied landscapes so far as possible 

 of our forests. 



Among other ericaceous plants natural 

 companions of the rhododendrons and 

 azaleas in our Southern Blue Ridge Moun- 

 tains the f Iready mentioned Andromeda 

 Catesbwi perhaps heads the list as the 

 most graceful and adaptable low-bush 

 evergreen we have; its long curving sprays 

 contrasting splendidly with the stificr 

 growth and foliage of the higher growers; 

 then there is the long list of deciduous 

 andromedas and leucothoes, many espe- 

 cially fine including A. recurva and A. 

 Mariana and our American prototype of 

 the Scotch heath. Leiophyllum buxitolium, 

 which we find growing as contentedly in 

 our high southern mountains as among 

 the Jersey pines. Of all plants suitable 

 for borders and rock-work the prostrate 

 form of the latter, L. prostratum is the 

 finest, at least among our American 

 plants. On our highest mountain tops it 

 forms dense mats clinging to the barren 



rocks and cliffs if it can get a crevice for a 

 foothold, one plant covering often a 

 diameter of 5 to 6 feet with a height of 

 only 2 to 5 inches, so compact as to com- 

 ple ely hide the rock; and when covered 

 with its small white flowers in the 

 greatest profusion it presents a sight well 

 worth the climb it takes to see it. One of 

 our most remarkable plants of this family 

 is the Galax aphylla or "Colt's foot" as 

 it is commonly called here from the shape 

 of the leaves, which rise from the ground 

 on separate and very graceful stems, the 

 plants growing thickly and literati}' form- 

 ing a feature in the landscape for many 

 hundreds of square miles along our 

 Alleghany Mountain sides and summits; 

 for it is found in the dense "laurel" and 

 on the sunniest southern exposures, 

 where the alternating frost by night and 

 sun by day turn the leaves a most beau- 

 tiful bronze, while in the deeper woods 

 and thickets they remain perfectly green 

 until the new crop comes the following 

 spring. So popular have these leaves be- 

 come for decorating purposes that nearly 

 ten million were used the past season by 

 the florist tradein this country. What finer 

 sight is there than the sunny bank of a 

 brook covered with a mass of these bril- 

 liant leaves in late fall and winter? For 

 planting along streams and for ground 

 covering in dense shade it is really a fore- 

 most plant. Harlan P. Kelsey. 

 July 21, 1896. 



Books on Landscape Gardening.— L. 

 R. L., Lansing, Mich., asks: "Canyon 

 name any book recently published, one 

 that is up to date, that gives good definite 

 plans for laving out private grounds? 

 Have V'aux, Elliott, Olmsted or any other 

 artists in lanJscape gardening recently 

 written any work on the designing and 

 laying out private grounds in cities?" 



.4ns. We know of no such a book. 

 Neither of the landscape gardeners that 

 you name has written a book on the sub- 

 ject, great is the pity. Get Downing's, 

 Parsons' and Long's works on landscape 

 gardening, and William Robinson's Eng- 

 lish Flower Garden and Wild Garden- 

 ing, and study and weigh their contents, 

 and if you have a cool head, good land- 

 scape taste, a handv pencil, and a famil- 

 iar knowledge of plants and gardening, 

 no doubt you can evolve a pretty nice 

 and apt design for any town or city lot 

 you may be called on to handle. 



The Flower Garden. 



OUR ANNUALS. 



Our China asters, especially Truffffut's 

 pCEony perfection, pyramidal, bouquet, 

 and dwarf chrysanthemum varieties are 

 very fine with us; the quilled ones are 

 good, too, but no one seems to favor 

 them. Our late sown zinnias are coming 

 into bloom; we grow them, also mari- 

 golds, to plant into the spring bulb beds, 

 so as to cover and brighten the ground 

 as soon as the bulbs die down. Dwarf 

 nasturtiums are doing excellent work in 

 this way; we have them planted in the 

 narcissus beds. Sweet scabios are in 

 good flower and they are fine, showy in 

 the garden and excellent for cutting. 

 Sutton's Snowball is a lovely white sca- 

 bios. Sweet peas have done well; we are 

 growing them in round clumps, one vari- 

 ety to each clump Salvia splendens from 

 seed sown in spring is cominginto'bloom, 

 and what a blaze it makes. The salpi- 

 glossis with funnel-shaped, variously col- 

 ored flowers are very sliowy, and we like 

 them as cut flowers as well. Stocks will 



