THE 



^ CLUB. ; 



Gardeners' Monthly 



AND 



HORTICULTURIST. 



DEVOTED TO HORTICULTURE, ARBORICULTURE AND RURAL AFFAIRS. 



Edited by THOMAS MEEHAN. 



Volume XXV. 



JUNE, 1883. 



Number 294. 



Flower Garden and Pleasure Ground. 



COMMUNICATIONS. 



AMONG THE FLOWERS. 



BY VALENTINE BURGEVIN, KINGSTON, N. Y. 



I desire to make a few remarks relating to hor- 

 ticulture in the first part of this century in Ger- 

 many. The love for flowers is as old as his- 

 tory. Each nationality or class had and has its 

 peculiar preference for certain kinds of flowers. 

 The Chinese and the Indians worship the Nelum- 

 bium speciosum — Lotus flower. The English have 

 the Rose, the Scotch the Thistle, the Irish the 

 Shamrock, the French the Lily, the Germans the 

 Oak, the Swiss the Edelweis, the Southerners the 

 Palm, the Mexicans the Cactus, etc. They 

 selected a certain flower or leaf as a symbol for 

 merit or regard, to be used on special occasions. 

 They adorned the head of an artist or a hero with 

 a laurel wreath, presented the bride with orange 

 blossoms or a sprig of myrtle, and gave the parting 

 one a forget-me-not. They endowed each with a 

 symbolical meaning. The scarlet represented love ; 

 white, innocence ; blue, hope ; yellow, envy, etc. 

 The Violet was indicative of prudence ; the Helio- 

 trope of devotion and the Tulip of beauty. In the 

 latter part of the last century some learned men as 

 Linnaeus, Jussieu and de Candolle framed that part 

 of knowledge into a regular system, (Botany,) as a 



third part of the history of nature, as a founda- 

 tion to build later discoveries of science upon. 



The gardening of those days was quite different 

 from that of to-day. A plot, whose dimensions 

 were governed by the circumstances of the owner, 

 at some distance from the dwelhng was fenced in 

 and locked. Shrubs, lilacs, syringas, snow-balls, 

 hawthorns, and golden chain (Cytissus laburnum) 

 were general favorites. Honeysuckles, Wistarias, 

 Boursalt roses, Dutchman's pipe, and Clematis were 

 planted and led to run up framework and pillars. 

 A variety of roses was set out, the old cabbage 

 rose, moss rose, a half double white and dark red, 

 and double, yellow Persian, a splendid eglantine 

 whose flowers were blood red in the inside petals 

 and yellow on the outside, and also a yellow 

 flowering eglantine. Centifolia minor and a still 

 smaller rose of the same character, pink and dark 

 red, were of the greatest ornaments to our gardens. 

 We called them the Pentecost rose and they were 

 always in bloom. At that time too, a pink month- 

 ly and tea rose were seen in gardens. The 

 wealthy had in their gardens roses of manifold 

 varieties which they imported from France, and 

 with which they ornamented their pleasure 

 grounds. Elegant perennials ; double pink, blue 

 and white hepaticas ; snow balls, saxifragas, crocus, 

 tulips of beautiful shades, narcissus, jonquils, 

 crown imperials, lily of the valley, purple and 



