February 26, 1896.] 



Garden and Forest. 



89 



pages ; and likewise an interesting suggestion of Messrs. Bell & 

 Langton's for the rearrangement of Madison Square in this city. 



Many pictures of country houses, whether good or bad in 

 themselves, gain interest by the incorporation of their envi- 

 ronment in the architect's design. I do not mean that this 

 environment is always better imagined than the house itself, 

 or even as well imagined ; merely that any proof that our 

 architects are coming to realize the interdependence of the 

 two arts is very welcome. One common fault is still the un- 

 due prominence of stretches of gravel in the vicinity of the 

 main front of a house. Of course, it is often involved in the 

 mistake of incorporating the carriage-entrance with this front. 

 But there are instances where the carriage-drive runs to an 

 entrance in another side of the house, yet, nevertheless, a 

 gravel path cuts off the main fagade from the lawn, not only 

 offending the eye by its own barren line, but preventing any 

 proper system of planting about the house to connect it inte- 

 grally with the soil and give it an air of harmony, unity and 

 repose. Summer days are few in our climate when a 

 lawn is unfit to tread upon ; and, to preserve its beauty 

 and that of the house itself, other entrances than the 

 one which should lead immediately to the grass might 

 well be used upon these days. Messrs. Rossiter & Wright 

 have grasped this idea in several excellent designs. 

 A striking instance of too much gravel, necessitated in part 

 by a faulty placing of entrances, is Messrs. Parfitt Brothers' 

 " Three Houses at Hill Crest," No. 112. In their "House at 

 Cedarhurst," No. 127, Messrs. Romeyn & Storer have drawn no 

 gravel line between the main front and its lawn ; but they have 

 based the semicircular porch upon a wide rectangular stretch 

 of flagstones, not even raised to form a terrace, which makes 

 an ugly blot upon the lawn, and has not as much excuse in the 

 way of possible convenience as a path. 



No carriage drive reaches the door in the long facade of 

 Messrs. Renwick, Aspinwall & Owen's " House at Baltimore," 

 No. 148 ; but the straight path which approaches it, between 

 two stretches of grass surrounded by low hedges, is absurdly 

 broad — almost one-third the width of the facade. Apparently 

 to relieve the barren effect thus produced, the centre of this 

 path has been filled with a group of flower-beds, which, of 

 course, as they are evidently out of place, merely add to its 

 ugliness, and also interfere with the convenience of pedes- 

 trians. Equally bad, in another way, is Mr. A. P. Valentine, 

 Jr.'s, "Plan of a House and Home Grounds," No. 179, where 

 there is no grass at all, but a meaningless arrangement of 

 multiplied straight-lined paths intersecting monotonous shrub- 

 beries ; and still worse is Messrs. Jardine, Kent & Jardine's 

 " First Study for a Country House near New York," No. 226. 

 Here the large house stands upon a high terrace, and below 

 this the foreground is filled with wide, contorted paths and 

 large flower-beds of graceless and inharmonious shapes, 

 encircling an oval basin of water which is not brought into 

 any relation with the architectural lines beyond it. More 

 ambitious and more interesting is Messrs. Snelling & Potter's 

 "Sketch for a House at Tuxedo," where the disposition of the 

 paths and drives is both sensible and pleasingly symmetrical. 



In pleasing contrast with garden arrangements appropriate 

 to our climate is the entrance path to a cottage at Burlingame, 

 California, shown in a water-color drawing by Mr. A. Page 

 Brown, No. 330. Among the distinctively rural structures 

 which seem particularly good I may note Messrs. Wainright & 

 Munoz's "Golf Club House at Seabright," No. 76, and Mr. Atter- 

 bury's " Model for a House on an Adirondack Lake," No. 373. 

 This is an interesting example of a large house kept low, as is 

 appropriate in the indicated situation, and built of stone and 

 unhewn logs. It may be thought, however, that in the Adiron- 

 dack woods a shingled roof would have more of the virtue of 

 fitness than the tiled roof which the house now bears. 



Several well-designed tombstones ot a simple kind prove 

 that we are gradually learning that it is not only large and 

 costly memorials to our dead which demand an artist's care. 

 Among them are Mr. Robert Brown's " Memorial Cross," No. 

 175, and the "John Hancock Memorial," No. 167, by Mr. 

 Schweinfurth, the designer of the excellent simple tombstones, 

 a series of which were published in Garden and Forest, vol. 

 ii., p. 198. Very beautiful in a more elaborate way is the late 

 Mr. Hunt's design for the Belmont tomb at Newport. 



A dignified and wholly appropriate design is Messrs. Cady, 

 Berg & See's "Memorial Gateway for Yale University," No. 

 339, with simple brick piers and delicate elaborate wrought- 

 iron work. In a series of beautifully executed water-color 

 drawings, Messrs. Howard & Cauldwell suggest a number of 

 gateways for the new parks in the northern part of New York 

 city. Their conceptions are excellent, in so far as the modest 

 size and open, unobstructive air which should characterize the 

 entrances to naturalistic parks are concerned. But the partic- 



ular architectural style chosen for their piers and pillars seems 

 less well imagined. Something more simply classical would 

 be more pleasing to a cultivated taste and more in keeping 

 with the general character which American architecture bids 

 fair to develop, than these rather heavy, baroque, seventeenth- 

 century motives. And a singular carelessness of the require- 

 ments of scale is seen in the same artists' " Birds'-eye Perspec- 

 tive of Proposed Park and Approach to Grant's Tomb," No. 181. 

 It is a good idea that Morningside Park and the Riverside 

 Drive should be connected at this point, and that in this way a 

 dignified vista should lead the eye toward the tomb when ap- 

 proached from the east. The idea is well carried out by making a 

 wide, straightavenue form each end of the approach, while half- 

 way between the two parks it broadens out into an open space 

 covering the area of four city blocks. But this area is designed 

 by Messrs. Howard & Cauldwell in away that would be appro- 

 priate to a small courtyard. The features they have selected 

 are so few and of such a character that only after long study 

 does the observer realize how wide the included area really 

 is. Quite a different scheme, and one of many more parts, 

 would be needed to give the space of four city blocks a suit- 

 able effect. And, by the way, our general ignorance in regard 

 even to the nomenclature of gardening art is shown by the fact 

 that this bald and strictly formal arrangement is called a " park." 

 In conclusion, it may be said that, while the drawings in 

 this exhibition show a commendable growth in the desire to 

 utilize the resources of gardening art, they prove that our 

 architects have still a great deal to learn, not merely with 

 respect to its right management, but also with respect to its 

 ideals and the difference between its various branches. They 

 prove how very wise it was, even in such a case as that of the Goe- 

 let place at Newport, where only strictly formal gardening ele- 

 ments were desirable, to combine the work ot a landscape- 

 architect like Mr. Olmsted with that of an architect like 

 Mr. Hunt. 

 New York City. Al. G. Van Rensselaer. 



American Carnation Society. 



T'HE fifth annual convention of this progressive society 

 J- brought together from various states the largest and most 

 enthusiastic gathering of specialists in Carnation-culture which 

 has ever met in this city. The Carnation has reached a lead- 

 ing place among commercial flowers, and there are, of course, 

 novelties enough every season to tempt the most conservative 

 grower who expects to keep his hold on the best market. 

 Every year he sees fine profits made by some enterprising 

 growers of kinds which take the popular fancy while the old 

 kinds are scarcely paying the coal bills. Little wonder, then, 

 if the Carnation exhibition which was held at the Grand Cen- 

 tral Palace, in connection with the annual meeting, had very 

 much the air of a speculative exchange, only the beautiful 

 flowers softened what otherwise would have been its hard 

 business aspect. There were many thousand flowers on the 

 tables, but, as is usual in trade exhibitions, in not a great num- 

 ber of varieties. All the favorite varieties were shown in great 

 profusion, and generally in the finest possible condition, ex- 

 cept, possibly, the favorite Daybreak, which, curiously enough, 

 while most plentiful, was in no single instance up to its best 

 condition. Of previous introductions Bridesmaid took the 

 honors for best pink ; Storm King was the best white shown, 

 and Meteor, Helen Keller and Bouton d'Or were the best of 

 their respective colors, and all well shown. The most striking 

 novelty for 1896 was Delia Fox, a seedling from Myers & Sant- 

 man, Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania. This is said to be a cross 

 between Grace Wilder and Daybreak, and is a most captivat- 

 ing shade of pink ot the Daybreak quality, but much darker 

 than that popular kind. In size, form, habit, etc., Delia Fox 

 apparently left nothing to be desired. 



The exhibit of Mr. Hill, of Richmond, Indiana, was the centre 

 of interest, as it comprised mostly novelties finely grown and 

 most beautifully shown in masses tastefully set up in large 

 vases. Mr. Hill's Jubilee has been seen here before, and it is 

 likely to take the lead among the dark scarlet flowers. Abun- 

 dance (1896) is a deep pink with rather short stems, and likely 

 to be valuable for its freedom, especially when grown outs 

 Triumph, which is a purer pink, is thought to be very promis- 

 ing and of a high class. Armazindy is a scarlet flake of the 

 largest size, hardly as refined as Helen Keller. Mr. Hill re- 

 ceived a certificate for Flora Hill, a grand white, which has 

 been grown three years, but is not ready for the market. The 

 judges also gave a certificate and ninety-two points lor Mrs. 

 McBirney, a fine flower of the Daybreak order. Mr. J. N. May, 

 being a judge, had nothing in competition, but made a most 

 tasteful and attractive display of Mrs. I'ierpont Morgan Ri 

 flanked by handsome Carnations, of which Maud Dean, when 



