202 



GARDENING. 



Mar. is, 



t'TTBLISHED THE lHT ANlt I5TH UK EACH MONTH 

 BY 



THE GARDENING COMPANY, 



Monon Building, CHICAGO. 



Sabscrlptton Price, f-'.UO a Year— 24 Numbers. Adver- 

 tising rates on application. 



Entered at Chicago poatortice as Becond-class matter. 

 Copyright, 18HT, by The Gardening Co. 



Address all communications to The Garden- 

 ing Co., Monon Huilding, Chicago. 



Gardening Is gotten up for Its readers and In their 

 interest, and it behooves you, one and all, to make It 

 Interesting. If It does not exactly suit your case, 

 please write and tell ut* what you want. It Is our 

 desire to help you. 



ask any questions you please about plants, 

 dowers, trults, vegetables or other practical gardening 

 matters. We will take pleasure In answering them. 



Seni> us Notes of your experience In gardening In 

 any line; tell us of your successes that others may be 

 enlightened and encouraged, and of your failures, 

 perhaps we can help you. 



Seni> PS Photographs or Sketches of you 

 Howers. gardens, greenhouses, fruits, vegetables, or 

 Uurtlcultural appliances that we may have them en- 

 graved for gardening. 



CONTENTS. 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



Prospect Park, Brooklyn, N. Y. (10 ill us.) 



TREES AND SHRUBS. 



In this issue we print ten engravings 

 from photographs taken in Prospect 

 Park, Brooklyn, N. Y., that will, we 

 believe, be of very great interest to our 

 readers. The accompanying article is 

 written by one of the ablest landscape 

 artists in the country and we heartily 

 commend his broad view of what is most 

 beautiful in park effects. 



The English Gardeners' Chronicle 

 makes note of the successful moving of a 

 purple beech with a girth of 9 feet 2 

 inches at the ground, 40 feet high and the 

 branches having a diameter of 62 feet. 

 The total weight moved was estimated 

 at 30 tons, and the distance moved was 

 50 yards. Preparations are now being 

 made to move an oak with a girth of 10 

 feet 2 inches at the ground, 46 feet high, 

 diameter of branches 45 feet. 



A few issues back Mr. Joseph Meehan 

 incidently mentioned Rosa moschata 

 which brought out an article by Mr. H. 

 S. Hunnewell, particularly referring to its 

 hardiness. In this issue is another article 

 from Mr. Blair, of Grand Rapids, Mich., 

 on the same rose. Gardening would like 

 more of these articles, especially those 

 relating to recent introductions of merit. 

 The recording of the behavior of any new 

 plant in the several sections of our coun- 

 try, where climatic influences differ, is of 

 essential benefit to our readers, and we 

 hope our subscribers will bear this fact in 

 mind, and sendusinany notes of interest. 



WOODBINE. 



In Ellacombe's "Plant Lore of Shakes- 

 peare" we find a delightful chapter on the 

 woodbine and its application to plant 

 nomenclature. In this work he treats 

 the honeysuckle and woodbine jointly 

 "because there can be little doubt that in 

 Shakespeare's time the two names be- 

 longed to the same plant." 



"Woodbines of sweet honey full." 



We find that in the Anglo-Saxon vocab- 

 ulary of the eleventh century it is ap- 

 plied to the wild clematis (C. viticella) 

 "Weodeu-binde," while in Archbishop 

 -LJlfric's "Vocabulary" of the tenth cen- 

 tury it is applied to an ivy (Hedera nigra) 

 "Wude-binde." 



The name woodbine isolten now in Eng- 

 land applied to the Clematis flammula. In 

 America it is sometimes used to designate 

 our Virginia creeper, Ampelopsis quinque- 

 folia, while in the Spanish West Indies the 

 Ipomea tuberosa is known under that 

 name. 



The habit of the honeysuckle clinging to 

 and twining round the branches and 

 twigs of any tree or shrub near it, is thus 

 alluded to by Bullein in "The Book of 

 Simples," published in 1562. 



Oh, how swete and pleasant is Woodbinde, in 

 woodes or arbours, alter a tender, soft rain; and 

 how friendly doe this herbe, if I maie so name it, 

 imbrace the bodies, armes, and branches of trees, 

 with his long winding stalkes. and tender leaves, 

 opening or spreading forthe his sweet Lillis, like 

 ladies fingers, emog the ihornes or bushes. 



The berries of the honeysuckle are thus 

 referred to by Calverley: 



Round which a woodbine wreathes itself, and 

 flaunts 



Her saffron fruitage. 



THE fl&PEN. 



In poetic fantasticism the European 

 Populus tremula is considered the em- 

 blem of "Lamentation." The tremulous 

 motion of its leaves, even in a calm, has 

 caused many a legend in fanciful explana- 

 tion of the cause. The common name 

 given the tree is aspen or aspe, although 

 the early Anglo-Saxons knew it as "Quick- 

 beam." 



One of the earliest legends connected 

 with it, and still vaguely believed by 

 some in England to-day, is that the cross 

 of our Savior was made from it, and in 

 the disgrace it felt it has never ceased 

 trembling. Mrs. Hemans thus refers to it: 



Oh! a cause more deep, 



More solemn far the rustic doth assign. 



To the strange restlessness of those wan leaves; 



The cross, he deems, the blessed cross, whereon 



The meek Redeemer bowed His head to death. 



Was formed of Aspen wood; and since that hour 



Through all its race the pale tree hath sent 



down 

 A thrilling consciousness, a secret awe. 

 Making them tremulous, when not a breeze 

 Disturbs the airy thistle-down, or shakes 

 The light lines of the shining gossamer. 



The Germans, however, while still asso- 

 ciating our Savior with the tree, have a 

 different version. Miss Darby in her 

 "Lays of Love and Heroism" has trans- 

 lated a German legend in which 

 The Lord of Life walked in the forest one morn 



and the trees * * * 

 * * bowed their proud heads at the sight of 

 the Lord. 



One tree, and one only, continued erect. 

 Too vain to show even the Savior respect; 

 The light giddy Aspen its leafy front raised. 

 And on the Redeemer unbendingly gazed. 

 Then a cloud, more of sorrow than wrath, 



dimmed the brow 

 Of Him to whom everything living should bow; 

 While to the offender, with shame now opprest, 

 He breathed in these words the eternal behest. 



Alas for thy fate! Thou must suffer, poor tree. 

 For standing when others were bending the 



knee. 

 Thou'rt doomed for thy fault in atonement to 



pay: 

 Henceforth be a rush for the wild winds to 



sway. 

 Sigh, sport of their fury, and slave of their will. 

 Bow, e'en in a calm, when all others are still. 



And shivering, quivering, droop evermore. 

 Because thou woulds't not with thy brotheis 

 adore. 



The weak Aspen trembled, turued pale with 



dismay. 

 And is pallid with terror and giief to this day. 



The aspen is considered one of the prime- 

 val trees of Europe. Its nearest relative 

 in America is P. tremvloides, of no great 

 ornamental value. In England at the 

 time of Henry V the wood was used for 

 making arrows, and an actot Parliament 

 was passed prohibiting its use for other 

 purposes, with a penalty of an hundred 

 shillings if used for making "pattens or 

 clogs." 



Some of the earlier writers were not as 

 gallant as they should have been for we 

 find them slandering feminine character- 

 istics. In "The schoole-house of Women" 

 in Hazlett's "Popular English Poetry" 

 can be found this closing verse: 



The Aspin lefe hanging where it be, 



With little winde or none, it shaketh; 



A woman's tuug in likewise taketh 



Little ease and little rest; 



hor if it should the hart would brest. 



Old John Gerard must have been a mar- 

 ried man, and thought best to screen 

 himself behind the interposition "as the 

 poets and some others report," when in 

 closing his account of this tree he says: 



"In English Aspe and Aspen tree, and 

 may also be called Tremble, after the 

 French name, considering it is the matter 

 whereof women's tongues were made (as 

 the poets and some others report) which 

 seldom cease wagging." 



NURSERYMEN'S GflTfltOGUES AS TEXT 

 BOOKS. 



Every spring the postman brings to our 

 door the numerous catalogues of our 

 enterprising n> rserymen. Upon these a 

 vast amount of thought aud study have 

 been judiciously spent, and within their 

 covers are golden words of wisdom. 



I'pon your success depends in a measure 

 the nurserymen's prosperity. Should you 

 fail in vour planting and become discour- 

 aged and discontinue it, they lose your 

 further patronage. Should you succeed, 

 you and your friends will want more stock, 

 and thus their business inct eases. 



They have had years of personal expe- 

 rience in their line and have mastered all 

 the necessary requirements of successful 

 planting. They desire to impart that 

 knowledge to you, as far as possible to 

 be done by words, that you may succeed, 

 consequently we find in these catalogues 

 chapters devoted to "Hints on trans- 

 planting, etc." 



Thus in the catalogue of Messrs. Ell- 

 wanger & Barry, Rochester, N. Y , we 

 find in their fruit department three pages 

 devoted entirely to instructions covering 

 the formation of an orchard, giving in 

 condensed form all requisite methods of 

 procedure, from the preparation of the 

 soil to the proper manner of pruning and 

 after culture. Four half-tone illustra- 

 tions, not imaginary pictures but from 

 actual subjects, are given, showing the 

 stock as it looks when received and its 

 condition when properly pruned for 

 planting. These three pages are worth a 

 great deal to an intelligent amateur who 

 desires success and will follow out the in- 

 structions, for they contain the resultant 

 wisdom of a century's experience. 



The catalogue of Messrs. Thos. Meehan 

 & Son, Germantown.Pa ,is a most excel- 

 lent one. They devote a chapter to 

 "Hints on Tree Planting and Pruning" 

 and another to the "Pruning of flowering 

 shrubs," that are models of perfection 

 and a library in themselves. These are 

 illustrated by examples of pruned and 

 unpruned trees and shrubs so plainly 



