472 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 299. 



people whc) live next door to him may regret his inclina- 

 tion, but their case is not so hard as it would be if he chose 

 to build a house which was eccentric or conspicuously- 

 ugly. A great deal of intelligent and not unprofitable 

 pleasure can be derived from a garden filled entirely with 

 rare or abnormal plants, although they would be much less 

 beautiful than the common plants in ordinary gardens. 

 But in this case, too, the man who has a paramount love 

 for oddities should recognize it as such, and he should not 

 try to persuade himself or his neighbors that his museum 

 is filled with objects of beauty, or that his treasures have 

 more value than theirs. 



But because a man has a right to plant his grounds as 

 he pleases, it does not follow that he would not be able to 

 enjoy himself more if he cultivated a broader taste, and 

 certainly one who aims to set forth beauty in its purest 

 form is in so far an educator of all within the circle of his 

 influence. We are creatures of habit. Few people have a 

 sense of beauty so keen and true that they are unmoved by 

 fashion ; few people are free from a desire of imitation 

 or of rivalry, and it is quite possible that the impulse to 

 imitate or copy a display of novelties and oddities will be 

 as strong as the desire to profit by object-lessons of the 

 purest taste. The man who makes the love of beauty his 

 aim, in the practice of the arts of horticulture, deserves to 

 be commended for his public spirit therefor no less than 

 for his good taste. 



But after the decision has been made to feed and develop 

 the aesthetic sense rather than the desire for curiosity, the 

 planter still has to limit his activity. No matter how 

 boundless his wealth or his acres, no one can cover the 

 whole field of horticultural effort. The commercial florist, 

 whose business success depends on offering to the public 

 what is most in demand, cannot be blamed if he grows 

 every novelty, whether meritorious or not. But it is the 

 amateur's fault if he fills his grounds with abnormal 

 plants which are valued solely because they vary from 

 nature's good intentions, and in this way perpetuate 

 her freaks and perhaps her diseases. He has no ex- 

 cuse for allowing charming garden-flowers to be for- 

 gotten because they are old-fashioned and filling their 

 place with others which are not as good, simply because 

 they are new ; nor for cultivating varieties of flowers, con- 

 spicuous only for enormous size, and neglecting the smaller 

 ones which have more refinement ; or for discarding a 

 single flower which may be one of nature's most perfect 

 essays in the beauty of form, for a double one which may 

 be only a shapeless mass of petals. Of course, no one can 

 afford to ignore the wealth of plant beauty which modern 

 exploration is constantly sending to our gardens on trial, 

 and no one should discourage the production of hybrids, 

 for in them we may secure some addition to the vigor and 

 beauty of well-known species. But the amateur who 

 learns to distinguish among novelties those which are 

 really desirable, must be firm, not only to select the good, 

 but to discard the bad ; and he should constantly bear in 

 mind that horticulture is not advanced by increasing the 

 amount of material at its disposal, but by a steady improve- 

 ment in its quality. 



One further limitation ought to be laid down. He has 

 the most pleasure and success who devotes himself to a few 

 classes of trees or shrubs or flowers instead of vaguely 

 spreading his efforts over as large a portion as possible 

 of the vegetable kingdom. A comprehensive collection of 

 Roses, a rich pinetum, a full array of Rhododendrons, an 

 interesting assortment of Daffodils or Irises, or a garden 

 full of flowering shrubs which will successively decorate it 

 with changing colors as the months go by — any one of 

 these is sure to prove more attractive to its owner than 

 a heterogeneous collection of all kinds of plants, not one 

 of which is carefully studied or sympathetically under- 

 stood. Of course, this does not mean that all plants ex- 

 cept some favorite should be banished even from the small- 

 est garden. There is time for excursions into other fields 

 even when attention is devoted mainly to one or two. But 



specialization of effort and sympathy is always fruitful of 

 instruction and delight. It indulges that passion for col- 

 lecting which is one of man's most curious but lasting 

 pleasures. It prompts that minute and loving observation 

 of differences which means a rich development of the sense 

 of beauty ; and it excites that fostering and affectionate 

 sentiment which enlarges and sweetens character. Further- 

 more, in developing his own collection, the humblest ama- 

 teur, if he sets about it with enthusiasm, can materially 

 enlarge by his experiments the resources of knowledge and 

 pleasure for other people ; and this is especially true if, 

 instead of devoting himself to popular favorites, he chooses 

 plants which have not received much attention, as, for ex- 

 ample, some of our native shrubs, the choicer kinds of Iris; 

 some of our native wild flowers, like our native terrestrial 

 Orchids. 



And, finally, even when the amateur devotes himself to 

 a beautiful class of plants, there is always room for choice 

 among varieties. And here it may be difficult for him 

 to persuade himself that among his beautiful Irises or 

 Rhododendrons there are some varieties which are defec- 

 tive in form or impure in color, and he shrinks from 

 discarding one from the total number which he takes 

 pride in counting on his list. This is a mistake. No col- 

 lection of plants made in the interest of beauty is im- 

 proved by the addition of individuals which are not of the 

 best type. No class of plants is improved by perpetuating 

 a variety which has not some new charm to recommend 

 it. The purification of a collection ought to lie as near an 

 owner's heart as its enlargement, and if he can show 

 twenty lovely varieties of one flower, or twenty fine species 

 of coniferous trees, he has a truer aesthetic instinct than if 

 he boasts of fifty varieties but shows some flowers which 

 are poor in color or bad in form, and keeps among his 

 trees species which have to be coaxed into living instead 

 of those which seem to rejoice in life. In the case of bo- 

 tanical collections, or in gardens for scientific use, this rule 

 would not hold, but amateurs should not forget that it is 

 beauty alone which gives garden-plants their value. If 

 this standard is not insisted on, the art of horticulture 

 may fall into disrepute with persons of keen aesthetic 

 sensibilities, and take a lower rank than it deserves among 

 the arts which refine and elevate the human race. 



Botanical Notes from Texas. — XIIL 



'T^HE face of the country from Laredo to San Diego, about 

 -'- one hundred miles, does not differ materially in aspect 

 from the country along the railway from Laredo to San 

 Antonio, and the forests are composed of nearly the same 

 kinds of shrubs. The country is more sandy, apparently inore 

 sterile, and shows less signs of civilization. Around the little 

 village of Pena, the deep sand is blown and drifted like snow. 

 It only needs the presence of Arabs and camels to make it 

 a littoral desert. But a few miles back we had seen an artesian 

 well of moderate depth, overflowing from a six-inch pipe. 

 Such wells may prove to be the material salvation of this 

 region. This part of Texas is mainly a cattle-country. The 

 occasional wind-mill towers, which the traveler may see from 

 the car-window, usually mark the location of the ranches. 

 Vast tracts of land are held by the cattle kings and cattle 

 queens of Texas, containing from ten thousand to five hun- 

 dred thousand, and even to a million acres. These ranges are 

 valuable for stock-raising, because the original cost of the 

 land was a mere trifle, and the present taxes are merely nomi- 

 nal. The present drought, of nearly three years' duration, has 

 caused great loss of live stock throughout this region. I was 

 told at Alice that during the period of the drought six hundred 

 car-loads of cattle-bones, gathered from the pastures, had been 

 shipped from that station. All stock-raising in such a loose 

 way is destructive to civilization and to the natural wealth of a 

 country. Every merely pastoral country gradually becomes a 

 desert. The tendency is always to overstock the range. To 

 destroy, and then to seek new pastures, is the rule. A region 

 depastured by cattle, swine, sheep and goats will rapidly 

 change for the worse, and every plant and tree whose leaves, 

 fruit or roots any of those animals use for food will sooner or 

 later disappear. 



