618 



HORTlCULTURi: 



December 8, 1906 



made was wet, and the narrow ones, that their growth 

 was made in a dry season. That is consistent and easy 

 to understand. But now suppose that I take a scion 

 from that tree and graft it upon a young stock. Will 

 that scion when it is grown up possess or contain the 

 above mentioned record? If so in what will the evi- 

 dence appear ? Again, the eyeless fish of the Mammoth 

 Cave when brought into light have their sight restored. 

 Now since the cause has been removed, will traces of 

 the effect continue through all future generations of 

 those fish? By the law of the survival of the fittest, 

 those plants and animals that cease to harmonize with 

 existing conditions drop out and carry with them the 

 characteristics or elements of weakness, and those that 

 survive are freed from them. The law governing 

 heredity is far from being understood, though great 

 strides are being made by leading investigators; but 

 the disciples of Darwin who have thought that all had 

 been done that could be done, are now giving the new 

 discoveries a cold shoulder. Still they hasten to say 

 that if the new theories do prove true they will only 

 go to prove Darwin's conclusions. The evolution of 

 plants and animals is like the one-bladed jack-knife, 

 that in course of time had a new blade, and still later 

 had a new handle, and reversion is the finding and 

 uniting of the old blade and handle. 



h.n.tru^t:> 



Tropical Beds 



It is claimed that tropical plants harmonize especially 

 weU with architectural stone work, but is this a well- 

 founded claim ? I mean would 3'ou show one of these 

 «o-styled tropical beds to a native South American gen- 

 tleman and have the nerve to say, "Behold a piece of 

 South America?" Geometrical symmetry of distance 

 and height has nothing in common with fidelity to na- 

 ture, because tropical plants have a natural irregular 

 dependence on each other just as much as do our 

 northern plant?, and disregard of these natural laws 

 means just as much in tropical planting as in planta- 

 tions of northern material. 



As the writer has observed in his travels in South 

 America, plants grow there even more in batches, in 

 larger spots or in distinct locations more frequently 

 than is the case with our nothern plants in a state of 

 nature. He recalls, for instance, a growth of begonias, 

 ten feet square, a solid mass with perhaps one or two 

 small palm seedlings interspersed, and some larger ones 

 as a background ; this was an impressive piece of natural 

 tropical plant effect. The "wandering Jew" in carpets 

 along the banks of streams with clumps of amarantus 

 glittering like metallic gems, is another natural tropical 

 effect, for these things grow and flourish in nature in 

 that way. He remembers clumps of tree ferns, ten to 

 fifteen in a twenty-feet square, with nothing "banked 

 up" abnut them except a few umbrella plants between 



their stumps and pretty green moss over the surface of 

 the ground; a picture never to be forgotten by a gar- 

 dener. 



One more word : is not the canna really better adapted 

 as a retiring plant rather than as a show object for 

 prominent places about houses, etc., and in drive-way 

 pieces? In the forests the cannas grow along the slopes 

 of rivers and streams and rather moist lands, under tall 

 palms and other trees, covering big fields of black soil, 

 and generally delight in the same situations as our 

 native lilies. Settlers that have "the lay of the land," 

 will advise the new-comer to clear land with under- 

 growth of canna, as that is usually flat, moist land, easy 

 to handle, etc. Now we agree that lilies make the best 

 effect planted along a pond or in some connection with 

 water, or in flat depressions where we can look down 

 upon them, and in half shaded places. Fidelity to 

 nature would give the canna a similar treatment. 



I have seen the trailing begonia with its picturesque 

 leaves and bright red flower clusters overgrowing, as 

 our clematis does, stumps of trees to a height of ten feet ; 

 a prettier garland cannot be imagined for tropical effect, 

 and what a lesson for the "designing florist." 



The above thoughts came to the writer while viewing 

 a flower bed not long ago which really had a tropical 

 effect, and is planted under the shade of large trees ; the 

 fuchsias, begonias and ferns that were used grow in the 

 tropics naturally together, flowering and flourishing 

 together aUthe same time, under the same climatic con- 

 ditions. So many of our horticultural plants are 

 natives of the tropics that it is not difficult to produce 

 tropical effects, providing one is informed in regard to 

 natural tropical scenery. 



To conclude, now that gardeners and florists are 

 promised some better information about landscape de- 

 signing, should not such questions as above touched 

 upon be discussed? As the time honored saying is, 

 "Every sparrow whistles it from the eaves" that carpet- 

 bedding styles heretofore popular, are down and out, but 

 what shall we do with our iDedding material and tropi- 

 cal plants, large and «mall? 



\mom Q) liummy 



The Single Purpose 



in the reading columns of this journal ia to give 

 intelligent readers the kind of matter which will be of 

 interest and benefit to them. This has been our policy 

 from the start and explains why a new paper has so 

 quickly won a reputation for good advertising results. 

 Every concern has its own way of doing business. 



Our Way 



is to aim constantly to catch the eye and the considera- 

 tion of the best men in the trade — those who are buyers 

 of first-class material and who can pay for what they 

 buy. If you have goods to offer to that class of buyers 

 then advertise the fact in Horticulture and 



You^U Get There 



