May 24, 1893.] 



Garden and Forest. 



229 



foliage of the old hardy varieties has been browned and the 

 branches have been broken by the heavy weight of the snow, 

 so that the general appearance of our collection is not so prom- 

 ising as it is in ordinary seasons. I may add that many flower- 

 buds are killed here and there, but these will be hardly missed 

 in the abundance of bloom. With the Queen all the buds are 

 killed, while the foliage has not suffered. 



It affords me great pleasure to be able to make a more satis- 

 factory report concerning my conifers. They do not seem to 

 have suffered at all from the severity of the season. I can 

 hardly imagine anything more healthy and satisfactory than 

 the whole collection appears to-day. Especially beautiful are 

 Abies Alcoquiana, A. brachyphyllum and A. Veitchii. Taxus 

 cuspidata, T. brevifolia and all the Retinosporas seem in per- 

 fect health. Even a Cryptomeria twelve feet high has not been 

 injured in the least. ^^ ,, ,, 



Wellesley, Mass. H. H. Hlllinewell. 



Plants in Bloom at Passaic, New Jersey. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — Paeonia Smoutii is an attractive species very close to P. 

 tenuifolia. It has deeply cut leaves, with segments as broad as 

 those of the variety Latifolia. The flowers are very dark 

 carmine, single, and with a large cluster of yellow stamens. It 

 is well known that the Fennel-leaved Paeonies are not only 

 the earliest, but among the most attractive, species of the 

 family. The double-flowered variety has the most finely cut 

 foliage, some of Mr. Woolson's plants having leaves of almost 

 thread-like fineness. The Tree Paeonies were just ready to 

 break into flower, and were in luxuriant health, the cool but 

 frostless season having been exceptionally favorable to their 

 growth. Campanula rhomboides is a Bell-flower with dark 

 blue flowers about an inch long. The leaves are very small 

 and dark. It has a prostrate habit, and is valuable for its early 

 blooming The season has also been kind to Saxifraga crassifo- 

 lia. The plants, with luxuriant, richly colored, leathery leaves and 

 stems two feet tall, furnished with large clusters of rose- 

 colored flowers, produced a noble effect. The double Cuckoo- 

 flower (Cardamine pratensis), also in a moist location, was 

 very attractive. It blooms freely with double white, slightly 

 tinted, flowers, rather Stock-like in effect. With it were grow- 

 ing Mertensia Virginica and Saxifraga Virginiensis, the latter a 

 beautiful little species with white Chamomile-like flowers ; a 

 nice plant for a moist spot in a rockery. Epimideum niveum 

 is also a dainty gem for the rockery, the pure white flowers 

 and delicate foliage being light and attractive. 



Dodecatheon meadea alba is a recently discovered form of 

 the American Cowslip, and more attractive than the type, the 

 flowers being pure white and apparently as free in growth as 

 the common one. Doronicum Harpur Crewe stands nobly 

 out as the best yellow composite of the season. The narrow- 

 petaled large flowers, pure golden in color, would be an orna- 

 ment to any garden at any time. 



This nursery is very rich in American plants, most of those 

 at all attractive being naturalized either in the open or on a 

 wooded hill-side. Trillium grandiflorum was in great beauty 

 in the latter location, with surroundings of the hardy Cypripe- 

 diums, Hepaticas, Erythroniums, Galax, Shortia, Ferns of 

 various kinds, and many other attractive plants. The low- 

 growing, prostrate and mat plants are now very attractive. 

 Daphne Cneorum, the most beautiful of prostrate shrubs 

 was in sweet blossom, and one wonders that it does not adorn 

 every door-yard, being a plant easily grown and readily in- 

 creased. Under the name Genista immaculata is grown here 

 an attractive prostrate shrub with pink flowers, which seems 

 to be a desirable plant for locations, say among rocky ledges 

 or stony banks. It has stiff, straight twiggy stems. Dicentra 

 eximea is a plant which has never awakened iny enthu- 

 siasm before, but there was a strain here in full flower and 

 perfect foliage, which was certainly attractive, both in leaf 

 and flower. The finely cutfoliage of this plant would make 

 it desirable in any garden even without the flowers. 



Among the low-flowering plants I noticed great breadths of 

 the dwarf Phloxes. The variety Sadie, in masses, is very 

 striking, though not as white as the Bride, having a slight tint, 

 giving a satiny effect in the sunlight. There was one especial 

 variety, darker than P. atropurpurea, whose name 1 did not learn, 

 but the color is clearer and purer than this good variety. Iberis 

 Gibraltarica and I. Garrexiana should be known and grown by 

 every one, being at this season the best of spreading dwarf 

 plants with white flowers. The last-named is a little lat^r, but 

 the former the purer in color — an absolute white. These 

 hardy Candytufts keep blooming a long time. The Ceras- 

 tiums also form dense mats of green foliage and are now cov- 

 ered with pure white flowers, a half to three-fourths of an inch 



in width. C. Biebersteinii and C. Boisseri are very similar in 

 habit, the latter more profuse in flower, the former, however, 

 not less pleasing. Of the blue-flowered dwarf plants, we find 

 the best are Veronica ceraeoides and V. rupestris, the latter 

 following in flower and just now making perfect mats of color. 

 They are perfectly hardy. Auriculas and Primroses and Poly- 

 anthus are in season, and the Iris species in great force, with 

 other promising flowers, many of which Mr. Woolson always 

 has under trial. 



New York. G. 



Recent Publications. 



Art Out-of-doors, or Some Hints 07i Good Taste in Garden- 

 ing. By Mrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer. Charles Scribner's 

 Sons, New York. 



Much of the text of this little book is not unfamiliar to our 

 readers, since it is largely composed of papers which have 

 already appeared in this journal, but they will be glad to have, 

 in so convenient and attractive a form, a summary of those 

 fundamental ideas about good taste in gardening which it is 

 important to diffuse among the community. 



The book does not claim to lay down exact rules for the 

 guidance of the gardener, but the careful reader cannot fail to 

 find his ideas enlarged by the clear expression of those princi- 

 ples of the art of gardening which are the result of study and 

 experience, as well as of natural taste. It is a book to be read 

 carefully and considered well before one attempts to act upon 

 its precepts. Thus treated, its worth will be recognized, and 

 to the learner it will prove a genuine aid in forming his judg- 

 ment and guiding him in his work. 



The author, from wide reading and close association with 

 the masters of the art she expounds, knows the last word that 

 has been uttered on it up to this point. What the best land- 

 scape-architects have taught us in their arrangements, this 

 little volume teaches us in words of well-chosen simplicity 

 and directness. The style is always clear and the matter in- 

 teresting, and each chapter is introduced by a quaint and ap- 

 propriate extract from some of the literary lovers of gardens, 

 which gives us a key to the subject which is to follow and puts 

 the reader in tune for its lesson. The writer shows us that 

 the fine art of gardening is not confined to parks and extended 

 pleasure-grounds, but can be practiced in a small area, and 

 with limited material ; that taste can be exercised in the plant- 

 ing of one tree or shrub, in the laying-out of a gravel walk, or 

 the disposition of a flower-bed ; that close thought is needed 

 even if the simplest effects are to be produced, and that great 

 results are only the outcome of long deliberation and study. 

 Emphasis is given to the necessity for employing the skilled 

 landscape-gardener before a house is built, since his advice is 

 as valuable upon the position of the dwelling as upon that of 

 the trees and shrubs and lawns among which it is to stand ; 

 and above all the author insists that no planting should be 

 done without a preconceived plan, in which individual plants 

 shall play a specified part. 



Mrs. Van Rensselaer gives hints about the laying-out of 

 grounds in the approaches and near neighborhood of the 

 house; about the proper use and grouping of shrubs with 

 regard to character, color and tize ; about the proper relations 

 of trees and vines to buildings, and the appropriate materials 

 for construction, which are all of great value. Her sugges- 

 tions about balconies and piazzas are fresh and instructive, and 

 her ideas about fiower-beds, though somewhat difficult to carry 

 out, are all sound and artistic. 



There is an interesting chapter on formal gardening, and 

 some charming ones upon the beauty of trees, in which the 

 writer permits herself some play of fancy concerning the re- 

 pose of certain trees as contrasted with the unrest of others, 

 and shows a tendersense of their individual characteristics, as 

 well as artistic perception of their values in composition. In 

 these we get a more personal note than is generally admitted, 

 the whole tone of the book being rather abstract and authori- 

 tative as becomes what is really a treatise. In the chapter on 

 the Love of Nature, tliis note is again struck with a skill that 

 makes us wish it could be oftener heard : 



"The true lover of Nature loves her as he loves mankind. 

 He has his favorite corners of the world as he has his friends, 

 and does not constantly wish to exchange them for others, or 

 perpetually contrast their attractions with the attractions of 

 others. If every one admires them his joy in them is increased ; 

 but if he is almost alone in his appreciation, this fact is in it- 

 self the source of a special kind of pleasure and pride. He 

 seeks for novelty and freshness in Nature as he likes to make 

 acquaintance with interesting strangers, but comes back as 

 gladly to the familiar scene as to the familiar face. The tree 

 which he has watched as it grew from a sapling to fine ma- 



k 



