232 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 275. 



branches. The Japanese Crab should be i)lanted in rich 

 soil and allowed plenty of room in which to spread its 

 wand-like branches. The portrait of a well-grown speci- 

 men of this tree was published in this journal some years 

 ago (vol. ii., p. 523), and gives a better idea of the masses 

 of flowers it is capable of producing and of its surpassing 

 loveliness than any words can convey. Improving with 

 age, the Japanese Crab grows more beautiful every year ; 

 the severest winters leave it uninjured, and insects and dis- 

 ease pass it by. The variety with bright pink semi-double 

 flowers, known as Pyrus Parkmani, is equally beautiful, 

 although it is a rather less robust plant. 



The flowers of thejapanese Crab are followed almost im- 

 mediately by those of the Chinese Pyrus spectabilis, a bushy 

 tree of spreading habit, known in our gardens in a double- 

 flowered form only. This is one of the good old-fashioned 

 trees our grandfathers planted, and the present generation 

 knows little about. It is hardy, long-lived, not too large for a 

 small garden or lawn, and so conspicuous in flower that 

 the most careless and indifferent passer-by stops to admire 

 its branches wreathed in pink and white. 



This is the season of the year when the owners of gar- 

 dens should inform themselves about such plants as these ; 

 and this is the time to order such plants, instead of waiting 

 until next spring, when the nurserymen will have disposed 

 of their best stock. The advice we give to persons who 

 want a good garden is to make notes of the plants they 

 see and admire now, and order them at once, prepare the 

 ground carefully where they are to be planted, and then 

 plant in the autumn or as early as possible next spring. 



The New York Flower and Fruit Mission, which has 

 been doing a good work for nearly a quarter of a century, 

 has once more begun its operations for the summer season. 

 This beautiful charity, which was established in London 

 before it came to this country, has now distributing 

 societies in almost all the great cities of the United States, 

 and from country towns and villages, where there are few 

 opportunities to dispense flowers, local missions send sup- 

 plies to the organizations in the cities. It is gratifying to 

 know that this work is carried on with such general and 

 hearty co-operation. Individuals, social and church circles, 

 and some of the women's colleges aid in various depart- 

 ments of the w^ork, while the express companies carry all 

 packages free of charge. On the opening day last week 

 flowers were received herefrom asfaraway asEaston, Penn- 

 sylvania, and during the season contributions will come 

 from at least two hundred and fifty towns in adjoining 

 states. More than half a million bouquets are distributed 

 by the New York Mission during the five months in 

 which this work goes on, and as many as eleven thousand 

 have been sent in one day to hospitals and tenements. 

 Flowers that keep and carry well are, of course, the most 

 acceptable, and no flowers are wanted which contributors 

 would not be willing to send to their own sick friends. 

 Fragrant flowers are also very desirable, and the mis- 

 sion never has too many packages of Pinks, Sweet Peas, 

 Verbenas, Candytuft, or Mignonette. The first day's 

 consignment to the Mission consisted largely of Lilacs, 

 which came by the barrel, Apple-blossoms, Pansies and 

 Marsh Marigolds, flowers which are always welcome. On 

 Thursday the flowers arrived in much greater variety, in- 

 cluding many wild flowers, little Violets, Solomon's 

 Seal, Crane's-bills, Bluets, Columbines, Buttercups, Saxi- 

 frages and Pinxter flowers. Among garden flowers 

 Paeonies, Lilies-of-the-valley, Tulips and Irises were most 

 abundant. 



All who wish to help in this work should remember that 

 it facilitates the distribution if flov\'^ers of different kinds are 

 separated — each kind by itself — in packing. In some gar- 

 dens special beds are cultivated for the benefit of the Flower 

 Mission, and young people who have been led to enter 

 upon this work for the summer will learn a good deal 

 about the habits and the cultivation of plants, in addition 

 to rendering a kindly service to many whose days need to 



be brightened by help of this kind. There are never more 

 flowers received than can be used, and those not fresh 

 enough to be sent to the sick are distributed in the indus- 

 trial schools of the city. But willing helpers to arrange 

 the flowers and to carry them are always needed, as the 

 greatest part of the work comes when many persons are out 

 of town. Persons who have no flowers to send can find 

 occupation for a few hours every Monday and Thursday 

 at the rooms of the society, 104 East Twentieth Street, in this 

 city, and no doubt the same opportunity to help is offered at 

 the mission rooms in other cities. Full directions for pack- 

 ing and shipping will be given on application to any of 

 the missions. 



Flower Pictures. 



'T'HE portrayal of flowers is the most frequently attempted 

 -•■ of all reproductions. Their simple, brilliant forms, their 

 universal attractiveness, make the task of perpetuating them 

 apparently easy, and without a knowledge of drawing or any 

 special sense of color, the amateur makes them his prey in the 

 effort to render his impression of them permanent. But 

 nothing except the expression of the human face is more 

 elusive than the loveliness of a flower, compounded as it is of 

 hue, perfume and suggestiveness, of which elements only two 

 lie within the artist's grasp, and one of these can only be ren- 

 dered by the subtlest skill. Thus Mr. Lafarge will hang upon 

 a Greek maiden's door a wreath of dewy blossoms, and by a 

 magic touch suggest Hellenic charm ; or he will float upon a 

 silent pool some queenly Water-lily that awakens memories of 

 hidden lakes. Behind the exquisitely rendered flower lies the 

 sentiment of the man, the human interest, without which art 

 is but paint and canvas. 



Years ago there was shown in Boston a picture by Mr. Ab- 

 bott Graves of a Rose-field in France. It was a great canvas, 

 in which the level masses of flowers stretched away for acres. 

 Among them women were at work gathering and binding up 

 the rich harvest. Baskets heaped with Roses were in their 

 hands, and in the foreground the bushes bent beneath the 

 weight of blossoms of every tint and shade. The details have 

 escaped my memory, but in it lingers the picture as a land- 

 scape full of sunshine, of sunny sky, of wide and airy expanse, 

 of wealth of color and busy life. To paint thus is to catch 

 that spirit which is the essence of true beauty, which leaves out 

 the irrelevant and fixes only that which is essential to the con- 

 ception, and in that manner secures eternal truth. 



For a fragrant flower is Nature's consummate work. It 

 lacks nothing of perfection. It appeals to every sense. Within 

 its modest sphere it combines everything, and appeals to eye 

 and mind with its gentle beauty, its fleeting grace, its balmy 

 breath. Therefore, to render it is a task worthy of the greatest ; 

 nor have the masters ever failed to touch flowers with a rev- 

 erent hand. The "fair lilies of eternal peace " in the hand of 

 many an angel of the Annunciation, the tumbling roses of 

 Rubens and the Venetians, the daisy-besprinkled grass be- 

 neath the feet of Raphael's soft Madonnas, the clambering 

 vines of Correggio, all show a touch of sympathy and recogni- 

 tion of this widespread loveliness. 



To the delicate perception of the Japanese, the rendering of 

 a flower is congenial work. His deft brush, full of flowing 

 color, renders at a touch the blending shades of the Convol- 

 vulus and Iris, which he loves to paint, or summarizes the 

 bewildering splendor of the Chrysanthemum with a touch 

 guided by an unerring perception of form. The rapidity and 

 security of his execution keep pace with the swiftly changing 

 flower, so that even its quick alterations cannot elude his keen- 

 ness of vision. 



In Mr. Parsons's pictures, shown in Boston and New York, 

 and already carefully criticised in these columns, we again get 

 that sympathetic understanding of the flower which is so rare 

 in western art ; and with him it is not only the flower itself, but 

 the flowers as a part of the landscape and an expression of the 

 taste of a people, that are marked features of his work. The 

 tenderest minuteness of study of the individual blossom in his 

 pictures, in no wise detracts from the breadth of his work. 

 Against the deep blue of distant and majestic Fuji, the yellow 

 Lily is defined in all its sculpturesque perfection, nor does 

 either unduly subordinate the other. There is a view of a half- 

 submerged Rice-field, covered with blue blossoms, which re- 

 flect the mottled azure of the sky above, that is a perfect illus- 

 tration of the value of blue in landscape. There is a fine gra- 

 dation of tint, a nice sense of atmospheric quality, that fill this 

 picture with the essence of out-of-doors, and as a color-scheme 

 make it, perhaps, the best of the collection. Another picture, 



