SUMMER HOUSES— FRUIT— VEGETABLE FHTSIOLOGY. 



283 



6TTMMEE HOUSES. 



Perhaps on no subject connected Tvith horticul- 

 ture is there more need of information than suitable 

 decorations for the garden, or Garden Furniiure, if 

 we may be allowed the expressive term, embracing 

 arbors, seats trellises, and other structures of use and 

 ornament in the <,-arJen. How often, when viewing 

 gaidins ot the greatt»t prtttn ions are ne compelled 

 to ^^a!k fiom one end to the other through beautiful 



LLa -z 



shadj walks and quiet uookp, without finding a rest- 

 place — no rustic seat inviting us to enjoy to it 

 fullest extent the quiet beauty of the scene. 



Among all garden ornaments the most useful and 

 beautiful are summer houses. Every garden should 

 have its little resort where th'e weary admirer of its 



beauties can find rest. These should be made as 

 smiplo and natural as possible, without any attempt 

 at costly display. 



"Insult Dfit Nature with absurd expenfp, 

 Nor ppnil her simple chai-nis bv vain pretf'nae ; 

 Weigh well the subject— be with caution bulU; 

 Profuse of genius — not profuse of golj." 



AVe give two very pretty designs — the first from 

 I ah English work, and the other from a drawing we 

 took of a summer house built by the lartented A. J. 

 DowNi.NG, on his owu grounds. Pleasant, yet mourn- 



ful, is the remembrance of the last moments we spent 

 in this beautiful retreat in company with its great 

 and good builder. 



There ia nothing so pretty for summer houses or 

 garden seats as rustic work — the limbs of trees with 

 the bark on — it is simple and appropriate. 



FEUIT. 



To compensate us somewhat for the loss of peaches 

 in this section, we shall have abundance of plums 

 and apples. The curcnlio seems to have almost 

 ceased his destructive labors. Perhaps the severe 

 cold of last winter was unfavorable to thejj. If so, 

 with our great loss we have some gain. We never 

 saw summer apples, especially the Red Jlstracan, as 

 fine as at the present time. The cold, wet summer 

 seems unfavorable to the growth of pears. They 

 cannot attain much more than half their usual size. 



VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY- 



Mk. EniTOE: — I send you a short account of an 

 operation of one of the laws that govern the vege- 

 table kingdom, that came under my notice a few 

 years since, — not as a lusus naturee, or ar.y thing new, 

 but to call the attention of the naturalist to notice 

 a law that probably has, and will govern every living 

 tree that ever did, or will wave a living bough in its 

 ambient atmosphere. Some years ago I noticed a 

 very luxuriant apple tree in my orchard, about four- 

 teen inches in diameter, then growing near the west 

 bank of the Muskingum river, in Washington county, 

 Ohio, began to show a blight of the extremities of 

 some of its loftiest boughs on one side of the tree 

 only, as if singed or scathed by fire, and of a reddish- 

 yellow tinge, which gradually affected other boughs 

 on the same side only, in succession from ten to twen- 

 ty days. At length it occurred to my mind that 

 some wrong might be in progress under the tree. On 

 an examination among the tall grass, some two or 

 three barrels of Kenawha salt was found on the 

 ground about eight feet from the tree. The leak- 

 ages from the barrels had corroded the grass and apple 

 tree roots under them. The barrels were removed 

 forthwith, and the blight soon ceased its progress. 

 The above case seems to admonish us that the sap 

 of the roots one side of a tree, has but little or 

 nothing to do with or for the opposite side ; or, in 

 other words, plants and trees have but a little or no 

 general circulation of their liquids, as in general is 

 assigned to living animal bodies. Probably the at- 

 tention of others has been called to things similar. 



Br.iGHTOX, N. Y. E. Bowe.n, M. D. 



