AND HORTICULTURIST. 



93 



only four branches from the top of the trunk, at 

 the height of about fifteen feet from the ground, 

 from which four branches the new twigs start. 

 Where silk is not made, maple, willow or some 

 other tree gets trimmed the same way. They all 

 serve the purpose of props to vines, which are 

 trained from tree to tree, and thus form a live trel- 

 lis round the field. The field itself is parcelled off 

 into srnall plots of wheat, oats, Indian corn, inter- 

 planted with potatoes, vegetables, melons and what 

 not. It is incredible, in fact, "the diversity of 

 things grown within that bedstead shape, and that 

 such happy family will peaceably grow tegether, 

 without jostling and without killing one another, is 

 the wonder. The soil is precious, the most must 

 be made of it, and the untiring industry ot the 

 Italian farmer and the favoring elements do the 

 rest. Neat as it looks, it looks unpleasant to us 

 liberal Americans, who have so much ground and 

 to spare. 



Allow me now to come back to gardening proper. 

 It does not compare in one sense with our own 

 gardening or with English gardening ; it is neither 

 such trim and careful work nor as thorough. The | 

 difficulties here are too few. Our best productions, 

 no matter in what line, are but the triumphs over | 

 ourselves, and man is not called out in Italy as 

 much as in Pennsylvania to show his mettle. Of 

 course this sentiment must not be carried to ex- 

 tremes. Both at the equator and at the poles man j 

 must knock under to nature, he can tame her but 

 little there ; he can never make her his servant, 

 and his victories there won't show much. But if 

 in Italy one-half of the trouble were bestowed, say 

 on roses, or peaches, or anything else, I say one- 

 half only of your or your neighbor's endeavors in 

 Pennsylvania, what results there might follow I 



Once in a while, but at very wide intervals, you 

 meet with a lawn here or an English garden. 

 Otherwise the architectural is the Italian style. 

 Parterres, ribbon beds, geometrical figures, circles, 

 walls of evergreens, mostly of evergreen oak, mar- 

 ble steps, a fountain, ever so many busts and 

 statues, grottoes, pieces of water with Neptune, 

 the naiads, dolphins, swans, boys in the middle or 

 round about, a sun dial, or a mosaic floor, arbored 

 walks, with stone flooring, ruins of antique temples, 

 or of an ancient castle, summer houses built of 

 solid thick stone, and very cool inside, these are 

 the features of an Italian garden, whether in the 

 city or in the country, far too stiff and too stony 

 for my taste, but often very perfect of their kind. 



I may in future give you details of a few of the 

 Italian show places. 



THE CHINESE NATIONAL FLOWER. 



i;V MRS. C. r,., FRANKTOWN, NEV.'VDA. 



I have never seen in print the story or legend 

 the Chinese have about their national flower, "Twe 

 dan Fa," a variety of Poly- 

 ^ B ^^ anthus Narcissus, which 



^^1 ^ w blooms at their New Year, in 



/^'^■^ February. A man died and 



« left two sons. To one he 



yT I J .left all his good fertile land 



'^\^\w '^"d house; to the other he 



' left nothing but a little piece 



^ -^^^ of poor, stony, wet ground, 



•^\\ '^hat no rice or anything else 



y \^ would grow on. He was in 



i \^JI distress, and had nothing to 



eat, so his god took pity on 

 him, and one morning he looked, and the ground 

 among the stones was covered with beautiful 

 white flowers, and the god told him to care for 

 them and sell the plants to buy food. Sokhe pros- 

 pered and became richer than the other brother, 

 and his ground was the only place the flowers 

 could be had." 



There is a double form of the flower, and they 

 (the Chinese) consider it fortunate for the flower to 

 be double. Last year my Chinese cook brought 

 me three fine bulbs — they come in clay. A friend's 

 cook had given her some, and the first one to 

 bloom for her was partially double, and the first 

 one of mine was single. My cook was quite an- 

 noyed, but my others were double — one like a 

 small rose, with nine large trusses on one cluster 

 of bulbs. He was quite pleased, as he said it was 

 "good too me ; you sabe good, good ; heap plenty 

 to you." Another time the same cook gave me 

 some, and I had one bloom in January. He went 

 off when he saw it in bloom to keep his New 

 Year. He came back in a day or so, and when he 

 came into the house he went to where the flower 

 was and said to it : " You heap cheatee me ; you 

 no sabe anything ;" they use the Spanish sabe for 

 know. It had bloomed too soon. 



[The Chinese read from tl'ie top down. The 

 three characters are the Chinese words. — Ed.G. M.] 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



What is a Garden. — It is a great comfort to 

 find once in a while a judge deciding by the rules 

 of common sense, instead of higgling over the 

 meaning of words. Before us is a report of a trial 

 in England. A lady willed to another her "house 



