488 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 300. 



member that Henry Patrick and Harry Freeman were intro- 

 duced with nourish of trumpets, yet proved to be, the first a 

 white show Daiilia of very poor shape, such as were common 

 forty years ago, and the other, thouo'h a very good decorative 

 kind, entirely without the long- twisted petals and loose ar- 

 rangement which make the true Cactus forms as distinct and 

 attractive as the Japanese Chrysanthemums. 



Of the so-called decorative kinds, little need be said; for 

 the most part they ought to be allowed to die out, yet a few of 

 them are really excellent. Lord Lyndhurst, a variety I have 

 had for many years, stands highest in my esteem. It is the 

 only kind, I believe, which gives first-class flowers in July. 

 Their color reminds me of George Herbert's "rose, whose 

 hue, angry and brave, bids the rash gazer wipe his eye," yet 

 there is nothing harsh or crude in its rich, glowing scarlet. 

 Next to this I should place Zulu, a very free-blooming kind, 

 whose flowers are almost black, with here and there a gleam 

 of lighter crimson. Harry Freeman, the white already men- 

 tioned, is well worthy of cultivation, and so is Mrs. G. Reid, a 

 light pink or rose variety, with curiously serrated petals. 



Canton. Mass. IV. E. Endicott. 



Lachenalias. — As the flowering season of these pretty Cape 

 bulbs comes round each year, it is always a matter of surprise 

 that the Lachenalias are so little known and cultivated. For 

 the window-garden, or, indeed, for any purpose where other 

 bulbs are grown in pots, these are in every way satisfactory, 

 the more so that they can be grown year after year and in- 

 crease rapidly with ordinary care. The kinds that are best 

 known in gardens are those of the larger-growing species ; 

 many of the smaller-growing kinds are, it is true, more curious 

 than beautiful, but it is a mistake to apply this phrase to the 

 whole genus, as is done in one work on Bulbs recently issued. 

 L. pendula is with us the largest and earliest to bloom, and is 

 now, with cool treatment, in full bloom. The scapes of flow- 

 ers resemble the Roman Hyacinth somewhat, but the flowers 

 are bright red, yellow and green-tipped ; the foliage of L. pen- 

 dula is broad and green, while in L. tricolor it is distinctly 

 spotted with round black spots, as is also L. Nelsoni. This 

 last is the brightest-colored of all, the flowers being of the 

 clearest golden-yellow, with scarlet margins. Lachenalias 

 need a long period of rest after flowering, and as soon as the 

 foliage dies down we shake them but of the soil and sort the 

 bulbs in sizes and store them away in dry sand until August. 

 The largest are then potted in six-inch pots or eight-inch pans, 

 and the smaller ones are put in boxes to grow on to the flow- 

 ering size. All are then placed in cold-frames until cold 

 weather comes, when they are brought into the cool green- 

 house. The treatment usually given to Freesias will suit the 

 Lachenalias admirably, both being natives of south Africa. It 

 is not too late to procure bulbs now for later spring blooming. 



South Lancaster, Mass. E. O. O. 



Nerine roseo-crispa. — This is a cross between N. undulata and 

 N. flexuosa, and a real gem. The Nerines are bulbous plants 

 from the Cape, flowering in autumn or winter, and this one has 

 small bulbs an inch in diameter, with narrow strap-shaped 

 leaves of soft texture. The flowers are borne in umbels on a 

 six-inch scape. Individually they have narrow reflexed petals, 

 are about an inch in diameter and of a beautiful soft rosy tint. 

 They are very dainty in form, and retain their beauty un- 

 dimmed for about a fortnight. 



Elizabeth, N. J. J. N. G. 



Correspondence. 



The Boston Public Garden. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — Last winter visitors to the Public Garden in Boston found 

 it decorated with the tops of Pine, Hemlock and Cedar trees, 

 cut in the country and stuck into the ground, where they were 

 allowed to remain until they were nearly bare of leaves. Dur- 

 ing the past summer a number of beds in the Garden have 

 been filled with half-hardy evergreen plants and tropical plants 

 mixed together. The tropical plants have now been taken out 

 of these beds and replaced with Hemlock-boughs and branches 

 of Oaks more or less covered with scarlet leaves, which at the 

 end of a few days have, of course, turned brown and are be- 

 ginning to fall. This, on the whole, seems to be the most 

 feeble and childish manifestation which the bedding system 

 has yet developed ; and in Boston it has not even the merit of 

 being well done, as it is in Chicago and some other western 

 cities. And yet, if one may judge from the expressions of 

 admiration which constantly appear in the Boston papers 



about the beauty of the Public Garden, it is fair to suppose that 

 Bostonians esteem this as the most artistic thing in ornamen- 

 tal gardening which has ever been achieved ; and year after 

 year they go on cheerfully paying for this dime-museum 

 chromo-show two or three times what it would cost to maintain 

 a really beautiful garden. 



Boston. li. 



[Anything that is a sham is bad art, and the attempt to 

 produce effects in a garden with the tops or branches of 

 trees stuck in the ground is a sham. This new style of 

 decoration, however, is only another expression of the 

 methods already adopted for the adornment of the Public 

 Garden in Boston, in which it is not unusual to see thou- 

 sands of plants like Hyacinths and Roses, previously forced 

 into bloom in frames or greenhouses, plunged in the beds 

 where at best they can only remain in perfection for a few 

 days and where their beauty is often spoilt at the end of a 

 few hours. This is sham gardening and bad art; and, 

 moreover, it is wasteful and extravagant. Large sums of 

 money are expended every year by the city of Boston in 

 providing material of this sort and in housing the tender 

 plants which are used profusely in the Garden ; and it is 

 only a few months ago that the Mayor approved an appro- 

 priation of $100,000, to be expended in building new city 

 greenhouses to supply bedding plants for the decoration of 

 this Garden and the different city squares. 



Bedding, that is the massing in summer of large numbers 

 of tender plants, can be properly used in most large public 

 gardens, and without it many gardens would lack a useful 

 and attractive feature ; but such a use of tender plants 

 should be limited to certain appropriate parts of a garden ; 

 and if a large sum of money is expended every year in 

 Boston for this sort of decoration, it should at least be as 

 good of its kind as it is possible to make it. Whether the 

 best results in bedding have been obtained in Boston, any 

 Bostonian who has visited this summer Washington or Lin- 

 coln Parks, in Chicago, can judge. 



It is a question, moreover, whether a garden is wisely 

 managed in which a great sum of money is expended every 

 year in producing effects which disappear with the first 

 frost, while the trees are neglected, the lawns are full of 

 weeds, and the walks remain out of repair, as is the case 

 with the Public Garden in Boston. Nor does it seem wise 

 or the part of an economical policy, that Bos'.on, which 

 does not hesitate to expend $100,000 for new greenhouses, 

 besides thousands of dollars every year in planting and 

 tending its flower-beds, should allow the trees in that Gar- 

 den and on the Common to fall into a condition which 

 gives. every thoughtful and inteUigent person interested in 

 the beauty of the city ground for serious anxiety. — Ed.] 



Chrysanthemums for Exhibition. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — While the Chrysanthemum shows are closing, it is 

 well to review the season and make account of any new or old 

 flowers or new features which have appeared in special promi- 

 nence. The larger shows through the country seem to have 

 been of quite uniform excellence, with a tendency toward bet- 

 ter-finished flowers, and, perhaps, fewer good specimen plants. 

 This is a tendency which is a natural result of the entrance of 

 the cut-flower grower into the field within the last four or five 

 years. The earlier Chrysanthemum exhibits were made en- 

 tirely by plant-dealers and professional gardeners with the help 

 of an occasional amateur. Since the advent of the cut-flower 

 grower, with his series of plants of one variety, grown on the 

 high-pressure, one-bloom system, from which to cut, the old 

 class of exhibitors, if they appear at all, are quite secondary 

 in the race for cups. The evidence of an unlimited supply of 

 a few kinds Only was to be noted in the competitions where 

 large numbers of varieties were shown together, as, for exam- 

 ple, in the classes for forty-eight blooms of different varieties, 

 and even in the twenty-four-bloom classes, it was always evi- 

 dent that thei-e had been a struggle to fill out the quota. A 

 full set of well-finished flowers in perfect character was the 

 rare exception. With such a wealth of varieties in cultivation, 

 this poverty of representation calls for comment. 



The large vase competitions for flowers of one variety, inau- 



