GARDENIA 



2383 



GARDENING 



pectedly. Charpentier's new opera, Louise, 

 greatly appealed to her, and she learned the 

 title role at a time 

 when there was 

 not the slightest 

 prospect of ever 

 appearing in it. 

 One night in 19001 

 the singer who 

 had the role of 

 Louise became 

 suddenly indis- 

 posed. It was 

 Mary Garden, 

 unknown and un- 

 rehearsed, who 

 was called to 

 make her profes- 

 sional debut in the third act and to carry off 

 the triumphs of the evening. Her interpre- 

 tation brought instant fame, and within a 

 week the youthful choir singer from Chicago 

 became one of the stars of the Opera Comique 

 and the favorite of Paris. In addition to the 

 role of Louise, which she has presented over 

 two hundred times, she has appeared in many 

 other notable operas, but won her greatest 

 successes in Pelleas and Melisande, La Traviata, 

 Helene, Manon, Thais and Cherubin. 



GARDENIA, gahrde'nia, a shrub of the 

 madder family which is cultivated in a double- 

 flowered variety in hothouses everywhere. Its 



GARDENIA 



Flower and leaves. 



MARY GARDEN 



waxy-white, sometimes yellow, fragrant blos- 

 soms are attractive in florists' windows. This 

 variety is also 

 found as a hardy 

 outdoor plant in 

 the Southern 

 United States. 

 In the gardens of 

 Charleston, S. C., 

 they are objects 

 of special pride, 

 for the genus was 

 named by the 

 botanist Lin- 

 naeus, after Dr. 

 Alexander Garden, a citizen of Charleston. 

 Cape Jasmine is another name popularly 

 given these tropical and subtropical shrubs, 

 although they are not related to true jas- 

 mines. One species, however, is abundant at 

 the Cape of Good Hope and they somewhat 

 resemble jasmines, hence the name. In South 

 Africa the very hard wood of the shrub is 

 used for agricultural implements and other 

 useful articles. The best known species was 

 brought to America from China, where the 

 orange-colored fruit or berry is used as a dye. 

 The leaves are dark green, smooth and lance- 

 shaped. They cluster closely about the camel- 

 lialike blossom with its smooth, thick petals, 

 which are so delicate they will turn brown at 

 the slightest bruise. See JASMINE. 



THE STORY OF GARDENING 



ARDENING, the art of working hand 

 in hand with Nature, which gives us cultivated 

 flowers and plants to delight the eye, and fruits 

 and vegetables to nourish the body. 



Gardening is the oldest of all the arts. Ten- 

 nyson calls Father Adam "the grand old gar- 

 dener," and Shakespeare says, "There is no 

 ancient gentlemen but gardeners." Two thou- 

 sand years before Christ the Egyptians had 

 irrigated gardens; the Babylonians knew the 

 Hanging Gardens of Nebuchadnezzar, one of 

 the Seven Wonders of the World; and in all 

 countries and ages since, people have made 



gardens for their use and pleasure (see HANG- 

 ING GARDENS OF BABYLON). 



Never before, however, has so much atten- 

 tion been given to this delightful and profit- 

 able occupation as in the twentieth century. 

 Perhaps some of this interest can be traced to 

 the school gardens which have recently become 

 such an important part of the study course, 

 both in rural and in city districts. Again, the 

 city man's backyard gardening is an attempt 

 to reduce the constantly-increasing cost of liv- 

 ing as well as his way of getting "back to the 

 land." So important does the promotion of 



