May 31, 1893.] 



Garden and Forest. 



231 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office : Tribunb Building, New York. 



Conducted by Professor C. S. Sargent. 



ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POST OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. Y. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, MAY 31, 1893. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Articlfs: — The Flower Garden in Spring 231 



The Beauty of Apple-trees 231 



The New York Flower and Fruit Mission ... 232 



Flower Pictures 232 



Notes on the Forest Flora of Japan.— XIV. (With figure.) C. 5. S. 233 



Foreign Correspondence : — London Letter Jf . tVaisan. 234 



Cultural Department: — Fertilizers for Small Fruits E. Williams. 236 



FilmyFerns. W.H. Taplm. ■zi'j 



Hardy Plants in Flower J. N. Gerard. 237 



Correspondence: — The Poison Oak £. A y. 238 



Cornelian Cherry and Benzoin J. 238 



Nicotiana affinis 5 M. P. 238 



Recent Publications , 238 



The Columbian Exposition: — The Green Apple Exhibit. ./V^Mi-or i.//. 5az7.y. 239 



Notes 240 



Illustration : — Acanthopanax ricinifolium, in the forests of Yezo, Fig 36 235 



The Flower Garden in Spring. 



AT the flower show held at Madison Square Garden in 

 £^^ this city on the first week of May, there was a col- 

 lection of hardy plants in flower, grouped naturally as in 

 an outdoor garden. A few expensive rarities could be 

 found among them, but they were mainly the useful spring- 

 flowering plants, like Anemones, Primulas and Polyan- 

 thus, of many colors, our native Trilliums, Epimediums, 

 Bird's-foot Violets and mats of Moss Pinks, Columbines, 

 Saxifrages, Spiraeas, Gaillardias, Bellworts, Mertensias, Au- 

 brietias. Globe flowers, Iceland Poppies, Irises, Doroni- 

 cums and Lady's-slippers, nearly all of them plants which 

 cost very little, are most easily grown and can always be 

 had with little trouble in a May garden. This proved 

 altogether the most attractive feature of the show. Visitors 

 admired the cut Roses, the Carnations, the Orchids and the 

 rich masses of Palms and other tropical plants, but they 

 lingered long by the hardy garden and discussed its merits 

 with singular animation. 



This interest was not born of association merely, al- 

 though there were many old-fashioned plants there ; for 

 people brought up in the city have no early memories of 

 such flowers in city yards. Nor did the plants attract by a 

 display of striking color, for all about them were masses of 

 garden Tulips and Hyacinths, greenhouse Azaleas and 

 Rhododendrons, which were much more brilliant and fairly 

 dazzled with their bright colors. The reason for this popu- 

 lar preference plainly was that the flowers of early spring 

 have a certain delicacy and grace which are unrivaled and 

 peculiarly their own. Very brilliant in the autumn is the 

 foliage of the Maples and Dogwoods, the Tupelos and 

 Liquidamber, and most satisfying to the eye which has 

 feasted all summer long on the luxuriant growth of field 

 and forest. A shrubbery in late September, bordered with 

 tall Rudbeckias and Silphiums, Vernonias and Sunflowers, 

 has another kind of beauty which is exactly adapted to the 

 prevailing tone of the maturing season. But the tender 

 tints of opening leaves have a different range of color and 

 one more beautiful, if possible, although less positive and 



emphatic ; and the flowers of the season in some subtle 

 way harmonize with the general color and atmosphere of 

 the time. 



Again, after a long winter, the flowers of spring have, in 

 addition to their intrinsic beauty, the charm of novelty as 

 the earth is waking into new life, and they have also the 

 charm of promise as the forerunners of summer's luxuri- 

 ance. Certain it is, at all events, that at no other time of 

 the year are flowers quite as pleasing to the eye or do they 

 make so strong an appeal to the imagination. Besides 

 this, many of the readers of this journal leave their homes 

 for the mountains or the sea as soon as the summer heat 

 begins, so that April, May and June are really the only 

 months when home gardens can be enjoyed. We have 

 again and again urged the planting of deciduous flower- 

 ing shrubs, the most of which are in bloom at this 

 season, but why wait for the wealth of flowers from herba- 

 ceous plants until the summer, when these plants can make 

 a garden so delightful in spring.? To begin with, we have 

 an almost endless variety of spring-flowering bulbous 

 plants. Some persons, it is true, complain that they are 

 tired of Hyacinths and Tulips; and when these bulbs are 

 massed in formal beds they may become wearisome, but 

 no one ever was tired of a Snowdrop or a Daffodil. No one 

 ever had too many Squills or Alliums, Snowflakes or Cro- 

 cuses, Fritillaries, Dog-tooth Violets, Lilies-of-the-valley, 

 Grape Hyacinths or Ornithogalums when they are naturally 

 scattered along the border of a wood-walk or among the grass 

 in the fields or in the unoccupied parts of large grounds. 



The keenest delight from horticulture only comes to 

 those who make a careful study of a few genera or families 

 of plants, and, in addition to their general love of flowers, 

 devote themselves to some specialty. Such persons can 

 find ample gratification in the spring garden. There are 

 enough early Irises alone to keep one collecting and study- 

 ing for years. Garden Tulips are beautiful, but there is a 

 fascination about the different species which no one knows 

 until he has begun to grow them and to study the beauty 

 of the wild forms. The varieties of Narcissus are endless, 

 and so are those of many other genera of spring-flowering 

 plants. The appeal which these plants make is almost 

 universal. No garden is so small that it has no room for 

 them, and no garden is so large that it cannot be enriched 

 and beautified by their presence. They will give pleasure 

 to the most careless and afford opportunity for study to 

 the most thoughtful specialist. No one who has a single 

 rod of ground will regret devoting a part of it to the culti- 

 vation of this class of plants, and if a fair display is to be had 

 next year it is none too early to begin preparing for it 

 now, for the hardy plants which bloom next year in April 

 and May must make preparation for it this year, and store 

 up in bulb or root or bud the material to develop into 

 beauty next spring. 



The abundant flowering of many small Apple-trees, this 

 spring, reminds us of the pleasant duty of calling our readers' 

 attention again to the beauty and value of these plants, 

 which should find a place in every garden in this northern 

 climate. The number and variety of Apple-trees with beau- 

 tiful flowers and of good habit is considerable. The earliest 

 to bloom are some of the white-flowered varieties of the 

 Siberian Crab, Pyrus baccata. The young plants are no- 

 ticeable for their formal pyramidal habit ; this disappears 

 as they grow to their full size and the mature plants pre- 

 sent irregular oblong outlines. The flowers are large and 

 snowy white, or they are often pink, for no tree varies more 

 in the size and color of its flowers or in the character of the 

 fruit, which is sometimes exceedingly beautiful, and often 

 remains on the branches through the winter. 



The next species to flower is the Japanese Crab, Pyrus 

 Toringo, which is often found in gardens under the name 

 of Pyrus Malus floribunda. This, it seems to us, is the 

 most beautiful of its race and one of the best ornamental 

 plants in cultivation. It is particularly beautiful before the 

 flowers expand, when the bright red flower-buds cover the 



