The Canadian Horticulturist. 219 



KEYNOTE IN LANDSCAPE GARDEN. 



Where a place is so fortunate as to possess an attractive prospect from an 

 elevation, everything in the foreground should be subordinated to this broad 

 picture, and nothing should be placed so as to distract the attention. Strong 

 forms of an occasional tree in the foreground may, by their sharp contrast with 

 the dim and shimmering lines beyond, add depth and mystery to the distance, 

 but there should be nothing trivial, nothing to prevent the eye from leaping 

 straightway to the interesting point beyond, and, above all, nothing in the nature 

 of clutter or trifling ornament near at hand. Where there is no' important out- 

 look, good landscape effects can be compassed, wherever there is room enough, 

 by availing one's self of slight undulations of the surface, increasing the height 

 of the elevations and the depth of the depressions by planting, by adroitly man- 

 aged shadows, and paths which vanish mysteriously behind a thicket. Where 

 there is neither space nor view, a garden of rare and choice plants can be made 

 the centre of interest, and, if these are not within the means of the proprietor, 

 less costly flowers arranged with taste and skill may bring never-failing delight. 



But, whatever the arrangement, there must always be some key-note, as in 

 a painted canvas some high light contrasted with deep shadow, which will turn 

 even a little garden into a picture. What is needed for this is the same kind of 

 thought which a painter gives when he sits down before his canvas. No artist 

 selects a subject without due consideration. There must be something in it — a 

 tone, a shadow, a broad light — which makes the homeliest object artistic. The 

 mental picture which the gardener frames it may take years to completely develop, 

 but, so long as he keeps in mind this central note upon which the whole scheme 

 is keyed, he can always work upon this motive, and add such details from year 

 to year as the growing picture itself suggests new combinations. Time spent in 

 such study is time most delightfully spent, for ideas can be sought in every walk 

 through the grassy path of a woodland ; every neglected roadside contains a 

 lesson ; every river bank, along which he may drift, affords a hint for new com- 

 binations, and the whole world becomes a sketch book, full of designs by the 

 greatest of artists, which he may adopt and adapt, without charge of plagiarism. 

 — Garden and Forest. 



Specific Action of Phosphates upon Plants. — Experiments have 

 shown that plants will die before reaching maturity, unless they have phosphorus 

 compounds to feed upon. Phosphates appear to perform two distinct functions 

 for plants. Firsts they themselves aid in the nutrition of the plants and, Second 

 they aid the plants in some way or other, to make use of or assimilate the other 

 mineral ingredients. Phosphorus is mostly found in the seeds of the plant, and, 

 as already stated, a plant does not come to maturity and so does not produce 

 seeds, unless phosphates are present in the soil for the plants to feed upon. — 

 General Expert. Station B- 55- 



