264 



GARDENING. 



May 15, 



be exercised in selecting the position for 

 the dwelling house, next for stable and 

 other necessary buildings, then the car- 

 riage drives and all other roads should be 

 so located that they have the easiest 

 grades and fewest short turns possible; 

 at the same time due consideration should 

 be given to preserving all the best trees 

 possible. These should be left in natural 

 clumps or belts where such are desirable. 

 In other cases careful thinning out of 

 poor specimens, preserving only the finest, 

 but always bearing in mind that it is so 

 much easier to leave a good tree growing 

 than to replace it with another after its 

 removal. Broad stretches of lawn judi- 

 ciously laid out are absolutely necessary, 

 but where they exist the natural undula- 

 tions of the land should be as little inter- 

 fered with as possible in making the 

 lawns. The margins of the clumps of 

 natural timber can often be utilized to 

 introduce some grand features of flower- 

 ing shrubs, of which there is an endless 

 variety. Some places would be most 

 suitable to strictly deciduous, while oth- 

 ers, where better sheltered, the native 

 evergreen shrubs such as rhododendrons, 

 kalmias, etc., can be used with grand 

 effect in these same clumps which bloom 

 almost exclusively in spring. The judi- 

 cious planting of many summer and fall 

 flowering plants, such as Lilium lancito- 

 Hum and its sub-varieties, tritomas and 

 many other hardy things of like nature, 

 for all of which the soil best suitable to 

 the rhododendron is also best suitable for 

 them, and what a beautiful effect the dark 

 lustrous leaves will give the bright col- 

 ored flowers as they appear in the dis- 

 tance; coming nearer to the residence, 

 what charming combinations can be pro- 

 duced by a judicious blending of the con- 

 iferous family and the bright glowing 

 colors of many ot the maples, beeches, 

 oaks and other trees, not forgetting a 

 liberal amount of yellow foliage. 



Water in most forms is a great desider- 

 atum in any landscape. The gentle rip- 

 pling brook with its low music, whose 

 banks should harmonize with its modest 

 charms; or the rushing turbulent mount- 

 ain torrent with its ever vibrating har- 

 mony of haste to join the mighty deep, 

 needs a bold, fearless treatment of its 

 banks; while the modest lake or mighty 

 river each should be treated to suit their 

 surroundings. 



These are only a very few of the points 

 necessary to consider, but I fear I shall 

 tire you on this point, so will pass on to 

 the garden proper. 



This should be selected with due regard 

 to a suitable position and where it is not 

 in full view, if possible, from the dwelling 

 house; it should be of adequate size for 

 the purpose designed, where all that is to 

 be grown, whether it be fruit, flowers or 

 garden vegetables, should be grown to 

 their highest perfection. Here the gar- 

 dener will have to use his best skill every 

 day in the year, for the simple reason 

 that every employer to-day expects to 

 have his own product from his garden or 

 farm, full}* equal to the best which can 

 be found on his neighbors', and generally 

 expects to have it better. Here the thor- 

 oughly practical experienced gardener 

 will select only the best and most ap- 

 proved varieties of fruits of the various 

 kinds; the same in vegetables, and of 

 flowers. I allude here more particularly 

 to such as are produced in the open 

 ground. 



Before closing these remarks I would 

 like to put in a little plea for the hardy 

 flowers and natural gardens. In nearly 

 every place of any considerable size there 



are out of the way places where a 

 wild garden can be arranged; the word 

 wild may not be poetical, but it is perti- 

 nent; I mean by it, where many hardy 

 things in plants, flowers and trees can be 

 so blended in planting that they will form 

 a charming feature of natural beaury at 

 all seasons of the 3*ear, and when well 

 done I have never seen one such but would 

 call forth the greatest admiration from 

 all lovers of nature. With dells, small 

 streams, rocks of various sizes, low 

 marshy spots, mounds, etc., a part or all 

 of which are often found on many estates, 

 here the art of man can beautify nature 

 by making a truly lovely wild garden, 

 and when once established the transition 

 from the more modern part of the grounds 

 to this will be all the more striking and 

 attractive. 



These are only a few points necessary 

 in horticulture, but in no place ever laid 

 out can the complete ideal be found; no 

 place so perfect but it can be improved. 

 In every place the various pictures should 

 not only be gems in themselves, but 

 should form one grand panorama de- 

 signed and executed for amusement, rec- 

 reation, education and advancement of 

 horticulture. 



With all the advantages we have in this 

 glorious country, with its wealth, diver- 

 sity of climate, the immense variety of 

 trees, shrubs and plants which flourish in 

 such perfection, exceeding almost every 

 other country in the world, why should 

 we not have the most beautiful horticult- 

 ural pictures in the world! The artist 

 who executes these will be honored as 

 among the greatest benefactors of man- 

 kind, and his work will be a standing 

 monument to his worth; and in the words 

 of the immortal Shakespeare: 

 A summer's day will seem an hour but short. 

 Being wasted in such time-beguiling sport; 

 Surely he hath not lived in vain 

 Who lived and labored for others' gain. 



FOFLflR MYTHS. 



A recent very interesting note in Gar- 

 dening on the folk-lore of the aspen or 

 quaking ash recalls that other members 

 of the poplar family have also a legend- 

 ary history of great antiquity. 



The European asp, aspen, or quaking 

 ash as it is called in Scotland, is botani- 

 cally Populus tretnula, while our Ameri- 

 can aspen, which has a rounder and more 

 regularly toothed leaf than the European 

 species, is P. tremuloides, Mx. The name 

 poplar (Populus) is said to be derived 

 from Arbor populi (tree of the people) so 

 common was it in ancient Rome. Virgil 

 in his poems mentions poplar many 

 times. 



It may be noted in passing that our 

 cotton-wood is indeed the tree of the peo- 

 ple, being the only tree in this country 

 which has multiplied spontaneously in 

 spite of civilization. Within the past 

 fifty years the cotton-wood (P. monilifera 

 Ait. ) and its kindred poplars and willows 

 have converted the bare prairies of the 

 great Mississippi basin into grove 

 studded plantations. In the arid regions 

 of the west a struggling, straggling fringe 

 of cotton-woods marks the water courses 

 where no other tree has been able to sub- 

 sist. 



Mythology assigns to the poplar an 

 Italian origin. As the story ran "The 

 Heliades, sisters of Photon, by name 

 Pha^tusa.Lampeteaand --Egele, after that 

 rash youth had been slain by Jupiter for 

 his reckless driving of the steeds of the 

 sun, and cast into the river Po, spent 

 their days by the river side shedding 

 tears, wringing their white hands and 

 bewailing their I096, until the gods in 



pity transformed them into poplar trees 

 and their tears into amber, which sub- 

 stance was supposed by the ancients to 

 flow from poplar trees like tear drops." 

 (see Gueber's Myths p. 87). 



The silver leaf poplar (P. alba), called 

 also Abele, which some authors derive 

 from Arbela, a city near Nineveh, where 

 this tree abounded, while others trace it 

 to Aubel, old French, or Albellus medize- 

 val latin, from the color, was sacred to 

 Hercules. He was fabled to have brought 

 it with him from Hades when he went to 

 fetch Cerberus, the triple aggregation of 

 caaine ugliness that did guard duty on 

 the premises of Pluto. Hercules having 

 first wreathed round his head a garland 

 of white poplar leaves from a tree grow- 

 ing on the bank of the Acheron, then 

 passed that river, captured Cerberus and 

 dragged him captive back to the earth. 

 The smoke of the infernal regions black- 

 ened the exposed surface of the leaves of 

 the wreath while the other side remained 

 white, hence the marked contrast in color 

 between the upper and under surfaces of 

 the silver leaf. The wood of the silver 

 leaf poplar is used for many purposes in 

 Southern Europe. The wood of the 

 aspen was at one time in England dedi- 

 cated by statute solely to making 

 arrows. 



The folklore relating to these trees is 

 interesting in so far as it indicates the 

 part which the poplars filled in the daily 

 life of the people of those remote ages. 

 J. Higgins. 



We have had a fresh lot of Vols. 1 and 

 2 of Gardening bound and can now sup- 

 ply these, bound in half leather, at $2.25 

 each post paid. Vol. 1 is complete but 

 in Vol. 2 there are two numbers of the 

 paper missing, the edition of these having 

 become exhausted. We still have a sup- 

 ply of Vols. 3 and -t, bound in style uni- 

 form with the others, price $3.25 each. 

 We will send the four volumes by express 

 not prepaid, for $10.00. These four vol- 

 umes are a comprehensive horticultural 

 library and invaluable for reference, each 

 volume having a copious index. 



The Northern Indiana Horticultural 

 Society will give its second annual flower 

 show in Ft. Wayne November 3 to 5 

 next. John L. Hanna, 402 Broadway, 

 Ft. Wayne, Ind , is secretary. 



Orchids. 



FORMS OF GYPRIFEDIUM CflUDflTUM. 



The long petalled flowers of the cauda- 

 tum forms of the cypripedium are so 

 remarkable that they are always of the 

 greatest interest. In some forms the pet- 

 als are from twenty-five to thirty-five 

 inches long. 



The accompanying engraving is from a 

 photograph of a group of plants in the 

 W. S. Kimball conservatories, Rochester, 

 N. Y. Regarding the plants seen in the 

 picture, Mr. George Savage, the gardener, 

 writes: 



"The one to the left is an extra fine 

 form ofC.caudatum Wallisii, lasting very 

 much longer in flower than any other of 

 the type. On the floor to the left is the 

 new C. Kimballianum; next C. Schom- 

 burgkianum, also C. Stonei. 



STflNHOFEflS. 



I have been given an orchid, Stanhopea 

 grandi. I am not familiar with it. Will 

 you please give the treatment required, 



