124 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



and there is a great temptation for them to exaggerate the value 

 of new things. In general, those who establish new places are 

 not competent to lay them out, although it is very important to 

 those who invest large sums in building that the surroundings 

 should be in keeping. Doubtless in the future new varieties of 

 ta-ees and shrubs will be introduced and used largely. Hybridiza- 

 tion will be more generally practised, and bv its means striking 

 varieties will be produced and will be wanted. Gentlemen, as a 

 rule, overplant, as they get catalogues of novelties and want 

 them all, and the««e produce want of harmony bj' being out of 

 place. The speaker recommended b}' all means that in planting, 

 new places a competent man should be employed to direct. 



Heury Ross did not agree with those who teach that we must 

 not have much color or man^- foreign shrubs in our grounds. He 

 believes that we want color out-doors as much as we want pictures 

 in our houses ; the trouble is that the colors are not arranged 

 with good taste. In forming new grounds men are apt to select 

 too level a place for the house and keep it too level. He would 

 make hills if he could not get them otherwise, but it must be done 

 with good taste ; bowlders should not be placed at the fork of a 

 road iu grounds where no bowlders exist naturally. He believes 

 in curves, but we must have a good reason for every one. An 

 architect should not be emploj'ed and then a landscape gardener,, 

 but one man should be competent to build the house and lay out 

 the grounds. The speaker saw a bed of scarlet geraniums at 

 Mr. Sargent's several years ago, in front of a long greenhouse, 

 which were planted in good taste and iu connection with the trees 

 and shrubs produced an excellent effect. At the Lyman place 

 there is a large extent of lawn and an avenue of elms forming a 

 Gothic arch ; ^ two large clumps of red pj^onies near the house 

 gave the place when seen from the street more character than 

 anything else ; they added a finish to the whole. The time will 

 come when we shall have more flowers in our grounds than we 

 have now. 



John G. Barker thought the paper which had been read a very 

 timely one, and leading iu the right direction. He did not agree 

 with the preceding speaker that the same man should plan both 

 house and grounds. If a landscape gardener's bump of adapta- 

 bility is at all developed, he will adapt the grounds to the house. 

 Manv new residences are formed in grounds that are almost 



