230 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 274, 



turity, delights him even more than a finer tree about which no 

 memories or hopes are clustered. When he drives through a 

 beautiful new country his eyes are perpetually charmed ; but 

 when he drives through the roads around his home his heart is 

 touched, and his imagination is stirred by the beauty of past 

 years as well as by the beauty of to-day, and by the hope that 

 next year's beauty also may belong to him. Each tree is a 

 friend, each bush has a special message for his special ear. 

 Each flower is greeted as the child of other flowers which he 

 knew last summer in the same corner of the road-side. He 

 not only admires what he sees ; he is interested by everything 

 he sees in a sense that is impossible where things are beheld 

 for the first time." 



There is a good " Word for Books " among these useful 

 chapters and a wise insistence upon the study of botany as an aid 

 to the true enjoyment of flowers and an addition to the pleasure 

 of one's daily walks. A very admirable passage about the ar- 

 rangement of the grounds at Chicago for the World's Fair pays 

 a deserved tribute to the genius of Mr. Olmsted ; and the final 

 chapter, concerning the true position of the landscape-gar- 

 dener in the artistic world, sets forth ^he value of this art, 

 about which people know so little. 



As a whole the book is a useful and dignified contribution 

 to the literature of gardens. It is sound, helpful and well 

 written ; the different treatises are skillfully grouped, and 

 fit well together, the whole work evincing study and re- 

 flection as well as wide experience and knowledge. It is a 

 book to be recommended to all who care to give inteUigent 

 attention to the art of laying out their own grounds, and it is 

 one from which even the experienced can learn much con- 

 cerning the principles that should be recognized by all who 

 would modify or imitate nature, or seek a more formal adorn- 

 ment of their grounds. It is a book to which the reader may 

 often return for reference and advice, and whoever reads it 

 will wish to add it to the useful list of helpful books on garden- 

 ing, which the author gives us in an appendix. 



Notes. 



The shrubberies of Central Park have suffered serious muti- 

 lation lately at the hands of visitors, who break off branches 

 when in flower. The Lilacs seem to suffer more than any 

 other plants, although no flowering shrub is safe. It is said 

 that much of the injury is done by well-dressed women, who 

 hide the flowers in their umbrellas and thus carry them out of 

 the Park without notice. It would seem that depredations of 

 this sort could not be carried on very long under the eyes of a 

 well-disciphned police force, but of late years the Park police 

 have not been noted for their efficiency. 



The exhibition gardens at Earl's Court, London, are to be 

 devoted this year to gardens and forests. These grounds are 

 a holiday resort of summer crowds, and exhibitions of an in- 

 structive and interesting character are often prepared for 

 them. Between May 13th and September 29th there is a 

 promise of special shows of Orchids, Roses, Carnations, flow- 

 ering and foliage plants. Gladioli, Dahlias and hardy fruit. 

 Forestry is to be shown by means of pictures, wood speci- 

 mens, tools, insects injurious to trees and tree diseases. There 

 will probably be a course of lectures besides. 



Rhodotypus kerrioides has already been blooming for a week, 

 and from this time on some flowers can be found on a well- 

 grown plant every day until autumn frosts. It seems a pity 

 that such a useful shrub could not have a brief and character- 

 istic common name. Very few shrubs have foliage of such a 

 light and cheerful green, and with a single pure white flower 

 iiesfling among the leaves at the end of every twig the Rho- 

 dotypus is just now exceedingly beautiful. It is never covered 

 with bloom, like some of the Spiraeas, and, indeed, it is more 

 beautiful as it is, with the flowers scattered among the foliage. 

 Of course, very few flowers can be found on the plant in the 

 droughts of summer, but they are never entirely absent. 



Rhododendron Vaseyi was first discovered in North Caro- 

 lina fifteen years ago, and it was figured five years ago in this 

 journal. And yet, although it takes readily to cultivation and 

 begins to flower when it is hardly more than a foot high, it has 

 found its way into comparatively few shrub collections of the 

 country. It has been flowering in this latitude now for more 

 than a week, while the Pinxter-flower, R. nudiflorum, has 

 hardly begun to bloom. The clear pink of its corolla, similar 

 to that of a La France Rose, is quite distinct from the color 

 of any other Azalea, and the autumn foliage of the plant, 

 which persists well into November, at first turns to purple, 



and later to deep crimson, and is remarkably beautiful and 

 effective. 



The appointment of Dr. Heinrich Mayr to the chair of Pro- 

 fessor of Forestry in the University of Munich will please many 

 of his American friends. Dr. Mayr paid two visits to this coun- 

 try, where he made a study of our trees for the purpose of esti- 

 mating their probable economic value for introduction into 

 German forests. He published the results of his observation 

 in a work entitled The Forests of North America, the first 

 chapter of which gavea very gloomy, though in the main a cor- 

 rect, picture of the wanton destruction of our forest-resources 

 and the danger which threatened them in the future. Dr. 

 Mayr was for some flme Professor of Silviculture in the Uni- 

 versity of Japan, and when crossing the United States on his 

 way to that country in the year 1887 he discovered in southern 

 Arizona the remarkable Pine-tree known as Pinus latifoha. 



Oxheart cherries from California, and the black cherry 

 known as the Virginia, are quite plentiful in the fruit stores at 

 fifty cents a pound. The first Peen-to peaches, from Florida, 

 are twenty cents apiece ; the quality of these is poor and the 

 New Jersey hot-house peaches sell more readily at fifty cents 

 each. Striped Gem watermelons, from Havana, are well 

 grown and bring two dollars each. The strawberries now 

 coming in from Virginia are the best seen here this season, of 

 good size and bright color. They are worth forty cents a quart. 

 The last shipments of oranges from Florida were made sev- 

 eral weeks ago ; those now being offered are seed-fruit and sell 

 for seventy-five cents a dozen, the same price as that asked for 

 Catania oranges, a better fruit at this season. The only Navel 

 oranges to be had now are from California. Messina blood 

 oranges are sixty cents a dozen, and very large thick-skinned 

 lemons, from Santo Domingo, bring seventy-five cents to a 

 dollar a dozen. Winter-berries are abundant at forty cents a 

 quart. 



A correspondent writes a note in approval of the practice in 

 many parts of France of planting flowers among the vegeta- 

 bles so that the kitchen-garden becomes a thing of beauty as 

 well as of use. No one will object to a judicious disposition of 

 flowering plants among those which are needed for the home 

 table in such a way that the same cultivation can be applied 

 to both, so that a bouquet for the decoration of the table can 

 be gathered when Beans or Peas or Beets are picked for dinner. 

 It is true, however, that a kitchen-garden may be a very pleas- 

 ing object to look at without any floral decoration. Indeed, a 

 good garden cannot help having the beauty of neatness and 

 order and regularity. A garden cannot be properly worked 

 with modern seed-drills and wheel-hoes unless the rows are 

 absolutely straight, the beds level and the path-borders true. 

 When we add to the beauty of perfect geometric form the 

 beauty of healthful vegetation luxuriating in rich soil, the ab- 

 solutely straight lines and square corners will make a strong 

 appeal to the aesthetic sense without any garniture of plants 

 which have no edible value, 



A correspondent inquires " the name of the Magnolia whose 

 abundant white flowers appear before the plant is in leaf." It 

 is probably the Yulan Magnolia, M. conspicua, since that is the 

 commonest white-flowering variety. This is a low-branched, 

 round-headed tree which attains a height of fifty feet at its 

 best, but it blooms when much smaller. M. stellata is not so 

 common. It is a beautiful shrubby species which flowers 

 earlier even than M. conspicua. It is sometimes called M. 

 Halleana, after its introducer, Dr. Hall. Its flowers are of 

 the purest white, three inches in diameter, and spreading out 

 into a star shape when they first open. M. Kobus, an intro- 

 duction of Mr. Thomas Hogg from Japan, which was sent out 

 under the name of M. Thurberi, also answers our corre- 

 spondent's description. It is not probable, however, that he 

 has seen this, as there are comparatively few plants in the 

 United States which are large enough to flower. A full de- 

 scription of this tree will be found on page 64 of this volume. 

 It may be well to add that of the Magnolias whose flowers ap- 

 pear before the leaves, M. obovata is a shrubby species with 

 petals a deep purple on the exterior, and creamy white on the 

 interior surface. M. Soulangeana is a hybrid between M. con- 

 spicua and M. obovata. It flowers later than M. conspicua, 

 and its sepals and petals are streaked with purple. There are 

 several other hybrids of these species with flowers which dif- 

 fer more or less from M. Soulangeana. M. Lenn6 is also sup- 

 posed to be a hybrid between M. conspicua and M. obovata. 

 It is a wide-spreading shrub with deliciously fragrant flowers, 

 three and a -half to four inches deep, with colored petal-like 

 sepals about half the size of the petals, of a dark purple over 

 the whole exterior surface and snowy white in the interior. 



