74 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 260. 



acre of ground arranged around a house, as here sug- 

 gested, would produce a mechanical, tiresome and ugly 

 general result. There would be no union between house 

 and grounds ; no good setting for the house ; no pleasing 

 outlook from any of its windows ; no attractive picture for 

 the eye that looked inward from the road, or for the one 

 which looked outward from the house. The most frankly 

 inartistic method of letting things alone could hardly pro- 

 duce so bad a result as this attempt at new creation of 

 a professedly artistic sort. 



It is needless, probably, to say again to the readers of 

 this journal that no good general scheme for the treatment 

 of undetermined, imaginary country-places can be formu- 

 lated. A definite scheme is of value only if the character 

 of the lot to be treated is definitely set forth, and the reader 

 is shown how the artist has adapted his ideas and methods 

 to its manipulation. The present scheme would be bad 

 enough even if the author had said, " Let us suppose an ab- 

 solutely flat lot, devoid of trees and shrubs." But to as- 

 sume that it is well to put an imaginary lot in this condi- 

 tion makes the evil teaching still more vicious. 



Now that the Columbian Fair Grounds are eloquently 

 teaching what high success can be won by sympathetic 

 and intelligent co-operation between architects and artists 

 in landscape, it is to be hoped that architecture will more 

 readily accord to its sister-art its proper rank. And when 

 architectural journals attempt to give counsel in the matter 

 of designing grounds in connection with buildings the 

 time has come when we are justified in expecting advice 

 based upon sound principles. 



In some recent numbers of the Ridgefield (Connecticut) 

 Press we are pleased to see that the residents of the pic- 

 turesque region of West Mountain have not only restored the 

 sonorous primeval names of the lakes and peaks, but they 

 have done almost an equal service in naming the roads 

 which intersect that region. West Mountain Road, Lake- 

 view Road, Oreneca Road, Tackora Road and Mamanassee 

 Road are names which mean something, and which con- 

 nect these highways with the history of the region through 

 which they pass. The practical use of these names in as- 

 sisting to direct travelers and to locate places is incidentally 

 illustrated in. the difficulty which the Ridgefield Press finds 

 in designating clearly the particular road-ways to which these 

 new names apply, through the want of any heretofore known 

 names. This section of the country will be more attractive 

 not only to those who live there, but to the public who 

 visit it, for the change from the homely descriptive names 

 given to its charming sheets. of water by the original settlers, 

 who naturally failed to see as much poetry in the Indian 

 names as their descendants do. Long Pond, North Pond, 

 South Pond, Round Pond and Burt's Pond, more recently 

 called lakes, are now known as Waccabuc, Rippowam, 

 Oscaleta, Oreneca and Mamanassee, from names pre- 

 served in the early records of land purchase. That these 

 aboriginal names are thus attached to the beautiful country 

 of whose early history they are a part, must give satisfac- 

 tion to all who are familiar with this region. 



A Cold Winter in North Carolina. 



NOW that January is gone, and the snow and frost too, it is 

 interesting to note some facts in regard to the coldest 

 month on record in the south. The cold winter of 1856-57 has 

 long been the traditionary coldest winter in the history of North 

 Carolina. The monthly mean of the cold January of 1857 was, 

 at Ci>apel Hill, thirty-eight degrees. January, 1893, will break 

 this record, going probably eight degrees lower, but I have 

 not seen the report of the observer yet. Monthly means of 

 temperature are, however, very misleading, and the best 

 gauge is the effect upon vegetation. It is the lowest tempera- 

 ture and not the mean temperature that decides what will 

 winter safely. Our cold January will be of great benefit to any 

 one engaged in the study of the capacity of plants for enduring 

 cold and the best means for protecting half-hardy plants. It 

 is, therefore, with a great deal of interest that since the sun- 



shine has strengthened and the frost is out of the ground I 

 have been examining the elTects of the frost and of the pro- 

 tection given some plants, as compared with the condition of 

 plants not protected. The full extent of the damage done can 

 only be determined by the way m which the plants resist the 

 fluctuating weather of spring, for I. have noticed that fre- 

 quently a plant which seems to be only partially killed will 

 continue to fail after hard frosts are gone and be dead when 

 warm weather reappears. The present notes cannot, therefore, 

 be regarded as the final results. 



Figs vary a great deal as to hardiness in different varieties, 

 and in the same variety under different conditions. Brown 

 Turkey and Osborn's Prolific show little injury, but all the 

 large white Figs are killed to the ground. Early Violette, 

 Negro Large and other black sorts are little hurt. Celestial, • 

 the little Chinese Fig, is very little injured. A bed of yearling 

 seedling Figs, from dried Smyrna Figs, in a sheltered place 

 seems to be perfectly sound, except the immature tips. But 

 before noting damage fiu'ther, let me state the temperatures 

 these plants endured. Tlie lowest temperature observed at day- 

 break by an exposed standard thermometer was four degrees 

 above zero. On other days the mercury marked eight, ten 

 and twelve degrees, and several times sixteen to eighteen de- 

 grees at daybreak. But it must be taken into consideration 

 that on few days did the weather continue below the freezing 

 point all day. These figures will be seen to be extremely low 

 when it is considered that in our ordinary winters the mercury 

 seldom goes below twenty degrees. The early summer crop 

 of Figs is, of course, lost, and there is damage enough to make 

 the late crop very short. Trees protected by Pine-boughs 

 around them are but little hurt, and if our trees had been bent 

 to the ground and covered with Pine-boughs they would 

 be hardly hurt at all. With a cover of earth on the branches 

 I have carried Figs safely through much colder weather. 



Prunus Caroliniana, our Laurel Cherry, or Mock Orange 

 as it is called here, has its foliage utterly destroyed, and Live 

 Oaks likewise. Pittosporum Tobira, fully exposed to sun 

 and wind, has its foliage badly browned, but not crisped like 

 that of the native Prunus Caroliniana. This plant will winter 

 in New York City, I believe, if protected from the morning 

 sun and wind. One would suppose that Magnolia fcetida 

 would have suffered, but I have so far not seen a scorched 

 leaf. Chinese Tea-plants, of which I have 3,000 in an exposed 

 place, have their foliage browned as badly as Pittosporum. 

 Gardenia fiorida, sheltered close under the walls of the col- 

 lege, will lose its foliage and young growth, but the stem and 

 main branches are soUnd. Satsuma, or Oonshin Oranges, 

 fully exposed to sun and wind, are dead down to the Trifoliata 

 stock. Two other trees, one of which is covered with Pine- 

 boughs and the other close to a board fence which caused the 

 snow to bank over a great part of it, are both in about the 

 same condition, the leaves and young shoots dead, the stem 

 and large branches still perfectly sound. With protection, in 

 a sheltered place, there is no doubt that this Orange will suc- 

 ceed here, and as it makes only a bush on the Trifoliata stock 

 t4ie protection is easily given. Our trees of Citrus trifoliata 

 do not show an inch of injury, in fact, none at all, although 

 the experimental hedge is fully exposed to the northern blast 

 for twenty miles. This is, doubtless, the coming hedge-plant 

 for the United States. It will make a good fiedge with but a 

 tithe of the labor required by the rank Madura. 



Neriums (Oleanders), unprotected in the yards in town, 

 are certainly killed to the ground and, probably, entirely dead. 

 Those which I bundled up with Pine-boughs are also killed 

 two-thirds, or more. Abutilon vexillarium, pulled down off 

 the trellis on my piazza and drawn in through a hole in the 

 brick wall under the piazza, with its base covered with strawy 

 manure and Pine-bouglis, seems unhurt. Aucubas will lose 

 most of their leaves when fully exposed. Chinese Azaleas, in a 

 sunny place, were so seriously hurt by the hot weather last 

 summer that they are now badly killed back. The heat hurt 

 them worse than the cold. Roses are injured worse than I 

 have ever seen them. Banksias, on porticoes, and Mar^chal 

 Niels will lose not only their foliage, but all immature wood. 

 All our Tea Roses have their foliage killed and all the late 

 shoots, but no plants are lost so far as I have observed, though 

 In low-lying places some may be killed down. Cuttings of 

 Hybrid Perpetuals, which we usually root easily in the open 

 ground, and of which I have some thousands in, have suffered 

 badly and I fear will be a total failure. 



Raspberry-canes of many varieties, even Black Caps, are 

 badly killed. Fruit-tree buds are as sound as can be, and the 

 winter has been favorable to a good crop of peaches. The 

 leaves of the more tender sorts of Narcissus which have shot 

 up are scorched, but are not hurt. How our Amaryllis, Cannas 



