December 27, 1893.] 



Garden and Forest. 



531 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Officb : Tribune 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, DECEMBER 27, 1893. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Articles: — The Key-note in Landscape-gardening 531 



Street-trees 532 



Notes on the Forest Flora of Japan.— XXVII C. S. S. 532 



Foreign Correspondence : — London Letter IV. Watson. 533 



New or Little-known Plants: — Washingtonia filifera. (With figure.) 535 



Cultural Department : — Dropsy of Violets George F. Atkinson. 536 



Early Cauliflower £. O. Orpet. 536 



Winter-flowering Greenhouse Plants.. T. D. Hatfield. 536 



Asparagus retrofractus arboreus, Stevia odorata, Iris stylosa. The Laelias, 



y. N. Gerard. 537 



Correspondence :— Japanese Morning-glories C. S. Plumb. 537 



Roses in Washington 5'. 538 



Recent Publications 539 



Notes 540 



Illustration : — Washingtonia filifera in a California Garden, Fig. 77 535 



The Key-note in Landscape-gardening. 



THE first essential of success in arranging grounds is 

 the ability to recognize the characteristic and salient 

 features of a place so as to work in harmony with them 

 instead of coming into conflict with nature. To this end 

 the individual quality of the surroundings of any place 

 ought to be carefully studied before a tree is planted, a 

 structure is erected or a path is laid. Few places, even 

 when comparatively small, are so dull or monotonous that 

 they are without a single feature which is worth empha- 

 sizing, and toward which, as a centre, the artist's thought 

 is constantly directed. This may be a distant prospect, or 

 it maybe a craggy ledge, a strip of woodland, a noble tree, 

 or only a pleasing sweep of surface. When this command- 

 ing feature is selected all the other elements in a consistent 

 scheme of landscape gardening are made subordinate and 

 accessory to it. Of course, this central idea must be dis- 

 tinctive to be interesting, and in carrying it out, if it is to 

 remain distinctive, we mast not follow precedent too 

 closely. Men too often plant certain trees in a certain 

 way because other people have set them so, dnd in this 

 way they are apt to make their estates humdrum and 

 monotonous from lack of individuality. True, if a place is 

 simply one of a hundred similar ones, like a regulation 

 house and lot in a suburban town, there is little to do with 

 such a featureless subject besides some formal planting, 

 whose lines will be determined mainly by the size and 

 position of the house ; and such arrangements, when 

 guided by good taste, can, at least, be made interesting. 



In a region, however, of open farm-land, or in a wood- 

 land opening, or near the sea, the proper way is to study 

 natural effects and subtly to conform all artifices to the 

 suggestions of nattire in the neighborhood. A great mass 

 of rock, instead of being concealed by trees and shrubbery, 

 should be made the most of in the outlook, and its lines of 

 rugged strength should not be softened away, or its pro- 

 portions behttled by any pettiness in its surroundings. If 

 the approach to a dwelling is through a native forest- 



growth, this naturalness should not be marred by the ni- 

 troduction of species which do not belong to that region. 

 There are enough native under-shrubs which are de- 

 sirable in themselves, and which will be doubly so in 

 such a place, where they help to emphasize the absence 

 of artificiality. 



In any scene it is plainly a mistake to introduce plants 

 which, however beautiful in themselves, contradict the 

 leading idea. Instead of this, we should carry out the 

 central thought in every possible way. If we have a 

 natural ledge of rocks we can encourage, native ferns to 

 grow in its crevices, wild vines to trail over its face, 

 and native shrubs and grasses to grow at its base, and 

 thus emphasize its natural aspect and make an artistic 

 picture at the same time. Where the surroundings of the 

 ledge are rough it may be the best practice to clear away 

 only the inhospitable thickets of Brambles and allow 

 Nature herself to weave a tracery of vines upon the rocks, 

 and encourage wild flowers to blossom among them. In 

 planting our native trees in a natural landscape we should 

 use them in such positions as they usually affect, not only 

 because a Willow will be healthy near the water while a 

 Chestnut will thrive on a gravelly hill, but because we are 

 accustomed to see these trees in such places. .Stretches of 

 green turf always enhance the effect of trees, but where 

 our object is to preserve as far as possible the wild beauty 

 of an individual spot and bring out the idea of remoteness, 

 the borders should be broken by capes and bays of foliage, 

 and outstanding single trees, and masses of shrubbery in- 

 formally disposed. If the key-note here is solitude, retire- 

 ment, the idea of escape from the frequented and a release 

 from convention, nothing like formality or rectilinear 

 primness should be permitted. This attempt to imitate the 

 quiet of an unsettled neighborhood the English delight in 

 producing in their great parks, through which one may 

 drive for miles before reaching the castle with a refreshing 

 sense of seclusion and unmolested nature. It is this idea 

 which adds the final charm to the great Beeches, with their 

 wide-stretched arms, and the Oaks which have remained 

 undisturbed for centuries. They add significance and 

 force to the idea of quiet permanence in an unvexed 

 domain, 



Where a place is so fortunate as to possess an attractive 

 prospect from an elevation, everything in the foreground 

 should be subordinated to this broad picture, and nothing 

 should be placed so as to distract the attention. Strong 

 forms of an occasional tree in the foreground may, by their 

 sharp contrast with the dim and shimmering lines beyond, 

 add depth and mystery to the distance, but there should 

 be nothing trivial, nothing to prevent the eye from leaping 

 straightway to the interesting point beyond, and, above 

 all, nothing in the nature of clutter or trifling ornament 

 near at hand. Where there is no important outlook, good 

 landscape-effects can be compassed wherever there is room 

 enough by availing one's self of slight undulations of the sur- 

 face, increasing the height of the elevations and the depth of 

 the depressions by planting, by adroitly managed shadows, 

 and paths which vanish mysteriously behind a thicket. 

 Where there is neither space nor view, a garden of rare 

 and choice plants can be made the centre of interest, and, 

 if these are not within the means of the proprietor, less 

 costly flowers arranged with taste and skill may bring 

 never-failing delight. 



But, whatever the arrangement, there must always be 

 some key-note, as in a painted canvas some high light 

 contrasted with deep shadow, which will turn even a little 

 garden into a picture. What is needed for this is the same 

 kind of thought which a painter gives when he sits down 

 before his canvas. No artist selects a subject without 

 due consideration. There must be something in it — a 

 tone, a shadow, a broad light — which makes the homeliest 

 object artistic. The mental picture which the gardener 

 frames it may take years to completely develop, but, so 

 long as he keeps in mind this central note upon which the 

 whole scheme is keyed, he can always work upon this 



