104: KECOKD OF HOETICULTrEE. 



ORNAMENTAL -LEAVED PLANTS. 



Among the hundred tliousands of flowering plants al- 

 ready known, one wovild suppose that we could find enough 

 to make our gardens sufficiently beautiful to satisfy the 

 most fastidious taste or fertile imagination. But this ap- 

 pears not to be the case, for our florists are not content 

 with flowers alone, but strive to introduce and produce 

 plants with foliage equal in color to the most gorgeous 

 flower. Success seems to have crowned their labors, and 

 we now have many plants the foliage of which furnishes 

 our gardens with an array of beauty such as no pen can 

 describe. 



With the new and beautiful foliage plants a garden 

 can be made extremely charming, even if no showy flow- 

 ers are cultivated. Every one who has for a moment 

 looked upon our native forests must have observed the 

 varied and beautiful colors of their autumn leaves. 

 The Hickories and Maples, with their golden tints ; 

 the Liquidamber and Nyssa afibrding every shade, from 

 a bright red to the deepest purple ; while the Virginia 

 Creeper, with its fiery scarlet leaves turned around some 

 giant stem, like a huge serpent embracing its victim, 

 gives a brilliancy to the scene which art may imitate but 

 never equal. 



In the lorest we have the extensive panorama, while in 

 the garden we endeavor to produce the small easel pic- 

 ture, with its delicate tints of light and shade, Avhich will 

 bear a close acquaintance without losing any of its real 

 beauties. 



