

June 22, 1912.] 



THE GARDENERS 



CHRONICLE. 



407 



Lilies is L. longiflorum, which I usually have 

 to treat as an annual and plant every year. The 

 ■obvious reason of this is that it is not reliable, 

 having a strong tendency, after flowering admir- 

 ably for one short season, thereafter to exhaust 

 its highest floral potentialities or render them 

 impotent by the creation of a large number of 

 miniature bulbs. Of a widely different character 

 are L. Henryi and L. chalcedonicum (the 

 brilliant " Scarlet Martagon," so finely contrasted 

 to L. Hansonii when grown side by side), which, 

 when cultivated in congenial and sheltered situa- 

 tions, last for years. Such Lilies as Krameri, 

 Brownii, and rubellum I have found evanescent ; 

 they flowered gracefully for a season and then 

 the place that knew their gentle beauty was 

 glorified no more ; but, on the other hand, I have 

 specimens of L. speciosum ruhi-um and L. aura- 

 turn platyphyllum in my garden, obtained from 

 Messrs. James Carter & Co. at least 15 years 

 ago, which, mirabile dictul are flowering still. 

 Nor have these received so much attention during 

 that long period as many other species of con- 

 siderably less importance for garden decoration 

 seemed to demand. 



I have recently had the gratification of adding 

 to my already extensive collection of Oriental and 

 American Lilies such supremely attractive varie- 

 ties as L. sulphureum (also called "Wallichianum 

 superbum "), a native of Upper Burma; L. Hum- 

 boldtii magnificum; and L. Washingtonianum 

 purpurescens, a highly-attractive Lily of the most 

 exquisite Woodbine-like fragrance, whose habitats 

 are found in far California. David R. William- 

 son, Manse of Kirhmaiden, Wigtownshire, Scot- 

 land. 



NOTICES OF BOOKS. 



Garden Design.* 



Many people interested in making a new gar- 

 den or renovating an old one have often felt the 

 want of an authoritative work on the subject. 

 In the past there has been no scarcity of good 

 guides, but these books are out of print, and 

 have also, of necessity, become out-of-date. Maw- 

 son, in The Art and Craft of Garden Making, 

 has contributed to the literature of landscape 

 gardening an excellent book, well illustrated with 

 Plans of some of his delightful gardens, which 

 tells the would-be garden maker well-nigh all he 

 wants to know. The " formal garden " has also 

 been thoroughly dealt with in recent years by 

 i Mr. Reginald Blomfield, who may well be called 

 the master of formal gardening. But the former 

 work is too expensive for the average dabbler in 

 garden-making, and The Formal Garden in 

 England deals with only one style of gardening, 

 *o that there has been for a considerable time 

 the need of what may be termed a handbook on 

 garden designing, at a moderate price, and, in 

 garden Design in Theory and Practice, Miss 

 Madeline Agar has endeavoured to supply this 

 want. In the book under notice 261 pages have 

 been divided amongst seven sections, which deal 

 in turn with such subjects as " History and De- 

 scription of Styles/' " Preparation of Design/' 

 Structural/' " The Component Parts of a Gar- 

 den, ■ and " Planting/' The chapter on the his- 

 tory and description of styles is interesting and 

 Pleasantly written; the author rightly remarks 

 tnere is no more a national type of garden than 

 there is an English costume, and yet the garden- 

 designer is probably more often called upon to 



l!Ti n " an En S lish garden, you know, a real 

 <»a English garden " than any other form. Miss 

 Agar deplores the widespread'prevalence of colour 

 m our English gardens, alleging that beauty of 

 jorm is sacrificed to colour, and quotes the 

 ^ap a ne se garden (of Japan, not the monstrosities 



r nich libel the Japanese gardeners in this coun- 

 ty) in support of her contention. But it seems 



o us that the author is mistaken. Our English 

 ^^call ^r colou r, and plenty of it. The 



Agan a %? H £t^f l *> 7\ t0ry and Practice, by Madeline 

 s*r- (bidgwick and Jackson.) 7s. 6d. 



Japanese garden does not suit our climate, and 

 the fact that we do not understand the signifi- 

 cance of the grouping of the stones, or the precise 

 meaning of a particular tree in a particular spot 

 should be immaterial. We can, and do, admire 

 pictures that are artistic, in the true sense of the 

 word, without wanting to know all about their 

 technique, or their inner meaning. Any work of 

 art which demands dissection stamps itself as 

 being second-rate. How many European visitors 

 honestly admired the Japanese garden which was 

 on view at the exhibition of 1910? Thousands of 

 visitors were evidently interested, but, although 

 this garden was presumably laid out in the true 

 spirit of Japanese landscape gardening, we do not 

 think many of them desired a copy in their own 

 gardens. Miss Agar has gone thoroughly into 

 detail in connection with the laborious work 

 of design-making. As the quotation from Rud- 

 yard Kipling at the commencement of this chap- 

 ter feelingly puts it: 



" . . . . Gardens are not made 

 By singing 4 Oh, how beautiful/ and sitting in 



the shade." 



There is a deal of tedious work entailed in the 

 necessary surveying and levelling and setting out 

 the plan, of which the client never even guesses, 



Fig. 194. — primula uniflora: flowers 



pale lilac. 



(The plant is reproduced natural size.) 



nor does he hear the deep, involuntary sigh of 

 relief when all the " quantities have been worked 

 out." On these matters the inquirer will find 

 much useful information, and the various tables, 

 plainly set out, will be found a great aid. 



The kitchen garden is rightly looked upon as 

 an important adjunct of the garden, and Miss 

 Agar would make it a thing of beauty rather 

 than hide it away from the owner's ken ; but we 

 cannot agree that the " ash paths " she recom- 

 mends are either beautiful or useful ; no gardener 

 would thank a garden-designer for giving him 

 cinder paths. 



The theoretical portion of this book is reliable, 

 and is such pleasant reading that, when we come 

 to the chapters dealing with practice, we are 

 almost forced to the conclusion that there has 

 been an unfortunate collaboration, for the author 

 is far from happy when dealing with plants, and 

 we fear that but few persons would approve of 

 her suggestions for the grouping of herbaceous 

 borders. The literary style also deteriorates; in 

 many instances we read of " stuff," herbaceous 

 " stuff/* bedding " stuff/' and the text is 

 disfigured by such sentences as: — "The 

 path that leads out of the formal garden, 

 may, with advantage, run between mixed beds : 



or they may be planned to give an interest to the 

 connection between kitchen and flower gardens; 

 and they are often seen at their best in the kitchen 

 garden itself," " The stronger-growing herba- 

 ceous plants, 6uch as . . . may be introduced 

 into large shrub beds, by omitting some shrubs 

 and running in a bay of other plants. This is a 

 mixture that has to be carefully done, or the ap- 

 pearance may be muddled," and " What is more 

 disappointing than to see a tree which is begin- 

 ning to be a feature, stop growth and look out of 

 health?" Probably in future editions this por- 

 tion of the book will be brought up to the 

 standard of the remainder. 



The diagrams are clear and useful ; as is usual, 

 a certain amount of artistic licence has been taken 

 with the coloured illustrations, amongst which 

 that of " An Alpine Garden M is poor in detail ; 

 it gives the impression of a few Alpine plants 

 growing in a west-country stone hedge. A. C. B. 



The Guild of the Garden Lovers.* 



This is not a gardening book, the authoress 

 having conjured into existence certain ladies of 

 like sympathies with herself, formed a guild, and 

 under cover of their names, with Sister Rosemary 

 as president, offers the reader her views on 

 various phases of gardening. The essays as a 

 whole are pleasing, though by no means exhaus- 

 tive, and one could imagine that the authoress's 

 acquaintanceship with gardens is not very ex- 

 tensive. Leading off with Our Own Gardens, 

 there is a charming chapter on An Invalid's 

 Flowers, in which the subject is treated with 

 much insight and sympathy. Next come My 

 Neighbours' Gardens, The Garden in Winter, 

 succeeded by a chapter on Delicate Gardeners, 

 those who are able to undertake a little garden- 

 ing but not robust enough to do rough work. The 

 Wandering Gardener is another essay that may 

 be mentioned with approval. There are also 

 problems from the individual sisters and the 

 replies from the other members of the guild. The 

 text is singularly free from error in plant names, 

 but Wichuraiana, as it is to many others, is a 

 difficulty, and affords a spelling problem which 

 the authoress never solves. She wishes yellow 

 Sternbergias had an English name. They have 

 several; the earliest being that of John Gerard, 

 who called them winter-flowering Daffodils. 



The illustrations are by no means worthy of the 

 text. 



PRIMULA UNIFLORA. 



This species is one of a small group of interest- 

 ing members of the Primrose family found 

 growing at high altitudes (13,000 to 14,000 feet) 

 in the Sikkim Himalayas. They are remarkable 

 for their dwarf stature, small leaves, and com- 

 paratively large flowers (see fig. 194). One 

 of the group, P. Wattii, was illustrated 

 in the Gardeners 9 Chronicle (April 27, p. 

 286), while one of the smallest, P. sap- 

 phirina, with heads of beautiful blue flowers 

 on stems from 1 to 2 inches high, was in 

 cultivation at Kew in 1887, but was soon lost. 

 P. uniflora was illustrated in the Gardeners 1 

 Chronicle, 1884, i., p. 545, f. 106, from a draw- 

 ing prepared from dried specimens, in company 

 with several others. There is probably no other 

 member of the genus with flowers so large in 

 comparison with the foliage. The leaves are 

 ovate lanceolate, stalked, and deeply-toothed, 

 while the stems with one, or rarely two flowers 

 are from 2 to 3 inches high. The pale-lilac or 

 mauve-coloured flowers open nearly flat, and are 

 about I inch in diameter. Seeds of this remark- 

 able little plant were received with those of 

 P. Wattii from the Calcutta Botanic Garden in 

 the spring of the year 1911, as well as those of 

 another interesting species, P. Elwesii, which 

 bears very large flowers. The latter, however, 

 has not yet flowered in cultivation, so far as I 

 am aware. W. I. 



* The Guild of the Garden Lovers, by Constance O'Brien, 

 Illustrated. (London : George Routledge & Sons.) Price, 

 3s. 6d. net. 



