February 19, 1890.] 



Garden and Forest. 



95 



beginning, and as there were no traditions of culture and no 

 experience to rely upon, the early fruit-growers were com- 

 pelled to experiment for themselves. Fortunately, they were 

 men of exceptional intelligence, and the reports of their papers 

 and discussions at the meetings of the State Agricultural So- 

 ciety and other bodies gave great aid to new-comers. It is 

 rather remarkable, nevertheless, that so complete a book as 

 this of Mr. Wickson's could be prepared out of actual expe- 

 rience in the orchards and gardens of the state. This manual 

 is very comprehensive in its plan, treating generally of the cli- 

 mate of California and its modifications, giving full cultural 

 directions to the fruit-grower from the proper method of clear- 

 ing the land and of planting the nursery down to the prepara- 

 tion of the fruit for market. No doubt it will be found of 

 great value to all those who are desirous to embark in fruit- 

 growing in that region, but who have no practical acquaint- 

 ance with the methods or materials to be used. The book, 

 however, will find many readers outside of California. The 

 wonderful variety of orchard fruits, semi-tropical fruits, small 

 fruits and nuts, whose cultivation is here described, will aston- 

 ish those who are not familiar with the resources of the Golden 

 State. Very interesting is the chapter on the wild fruits of 

 California and on the old fruits that were introduced into the 

 early missions. The section of the work relating to the preser- 

 vation of fruit is comparatively brief, but to the eastern reader 

 it has a peculiar attraction on account of the magnitude of the 

 operations which are there described. 



Exhibitions. 



Flowers at the Water-Color Exhibition. 



THERE are some fair flower pictures in this year's water- 

 color collection, but none of remarkable excellence. Miss 

 Greatorex has sent none of her large paintings in which the 

 color of great masses of blossoms is insisted upon with such 

 splendid decorative effect ; Mr. La Farge none of his exquisite 

 little studies where the whole of a blossom's beauty is shown 

 and a soul is suggested for it that only the poet's eye can see 

 in nature ; and Mr. Weir none of those dainty Roses which 

 are dreams of flowers rather than real flowers. Instead we 

 have a number of little works where simple portraiture of a 

 more prosaic sort is attempted, and a few where a general 

 decorative effect has been tried for, with flowers as the main 

 but not the only motive. 



Perhaps the most important of all is Miss Hooker's "Carna- 

 tions," a large picture with the yellow, pink, white and dark 

 red flowers, half in a white glass bowl and half on a white 

 table-cloth. The composition is effective, the lighting well 

 conceived, and the flowers well drawn, and neither too rigid 

 nor too soft. In color the general effect is excellent, but this 

 result has been attained by some sacrifice of strength of tint 

 in the flowers themselves. Were they as truthfully por- 

 trayed in this as in other respects, there would be no defi- 

 ciency to note in an excellent picture. By comparison all the 

 other paintings of Carnations on the wall seem poor enough. 

 As a rule the form of the flower has been neglected ; we see 

 only a featureless mass, sometimes too hard, more often too 

 soft, without the vigor of outline or the beauty of detail which 

 give a Carnation its character. 



Roses are even more in favor this year than Carnations, 

 usually one of the double pink hot-house varieties being 

 chosen. Here again the chief fault is lack of form — or, per- 

 haps, lack of substance. Even when the form is well made 

 out the Rose looks as though it were composed of some 

 wishy-washy material instead of the pliant yet thick, the soft 

 yet waxy, the delicate yet heavy material that Nature uses. 

 Much the best Roses in the collection, I think, are those by 

 Miss Grace Pomeroy, -which are unfortunately skied over a 

 door in the west room. They are only a few flowers simply 

 placed in a common ginger-jar, with the white paper for 

 background. But they are well drawn, frank and true in 

 color, and firm in body without being in the least "hard" in 

 the painter's sense of the word. It is especially pleasant to 

 see the foliage as well executed as the flowers, and not allowed 

 to fade away into the background as though of minor import- 

 ance. Miss Pomeroy calls these Roses Bon Silene. Would 

 not a florist call them Papa Gontier ? Miss E. E. Lampert does 

 not paint Roses badly, but neither is her work exceptionally 

 good ; and most of the others who have tried them may well 

 be left unnamed. 



A different kind of work is called for by Hollyhocks, and 

 Mrs. Nicholls' bold touch and nice feeling for brilliant color 

 have represented them well, in tall stalks with white and red 



blossoms. A delicate little picture is Miss Abbat's " White 

 Sweet Scabious," where the flowers are grouped with other 

 objects and the general color effect is good. Most of the Pan- 

 sies are blotty and watery — devoid of texture although nicer 

 very often, in color. E. M. Scott sends some Nasturtiums in 

 a glass bowl which deserve mention; Miss Williams an excel- 

 lent study of pink Chinese Primroses growing in a pot, and 

 H. A. Pressey a group of Azaleas in a green glass bowl, re- 

 markable for the delicate completeness with which the fra- 

 gility of the greenish white petals and the exquisite pliant out- 

 line of the blossoms are rendered. Miss Redmond's "Grapes" 

 should not be overlooked, though they, too, are "skied" — 

 California Grapes, blue, red and green, as hard, yet velvety 

 and juicy, as the sun of the Pacific had made them. 



But much the most interesting pictures of flowers in the 

 collection are two which lie outside the customary limits 

 of flower-painting — two landscapes in which masses of 

 growing flowers form the dominant feature. One is Mr. Ross 

 Turner's brilliantly handled "Garden of Lilies, Bermuda," 

 where we see a Lily plantation in the foreground, with touches 

 of brighter hues to relieve its borders, white houses in the 

 middle distance, and the background on a slope of vivid green 

 and interspersed with blackish evergreens, and a cloud-flecked 

 sky that is likewise frankly green, although, of course, quite 

 pale in tone. We can believe anything of the color in Ber- 

 muda, such marvels have so often been told us; and Mr. 

 Turner's sky proves its verity by its harmony with the other 

 tones in his clear scheme of color. His Lilies are really not 

 painted at all ; there is just a stretch of white paper flecked 

 with yellow, to stand for their mass. But this mass is sug- 

 gested in such delightful fashion that we are content to forget 

 for once that Lilies have beautiful forms, enjoying the radiance 

 of the snowy sheet which is stretched before us. 



The second flowery landscape is Mr. Bunker's "Aster Gar- 

 den." Here we have the summer of the north as against Mr. 

 Turner's winter of the south; and it is hard to choose between 

 their contrasting charms. Nothing could be more attractive 

 to eyes tired of our winter's bareness than this huddled gar- 

 den corner where great masses of China Asters (painted, like 

 Mr. Turner's Lilies, for color effect simply) grow beneath a 

 hedge of Sweet Peas, with Coreopsis starring the tall grass in 

 front of them, and what seems to be an orchard stretching its 

 shadowy breadth in the background. Of course, this is not the 

 way to paint flowers when one wants to show the flowers 

 themselves ; but when it is their effect that is wanted — their 

 beauty as they grow in masses of softly blended or sharply 

 contrasted colors — then few water-color painters of the day 

 could expect to succeed better than Mr. Turner and Mr. Bunker 

 have succeeded here. 



New York City. M. G. Van Rensselaer. 



Meetings of Societies. 



At an adjourned meeting of the New York Forestry Asso- 

 ciation held at Columbia College on Monday afternoon, Feb- 

 ruary 10th, a revised Constitution was adopted, and the follow- 

 ing officers were elected: President, Morris K. Jesup; Vice-Pres- 

 idents, Dr. C. K. Adams, President of Cornell University ; 

 Grover Cleveland, Willard Cobb, Mrs. D. G. Croly, George 

 William Curtis, Rt. Rev. W. C. Doane, Warren Higley, 

 Seth Low, President of Columbia College ; Warner Miller, 

 C. L. Merriam, Dr. J. S. Newberry, Ellis H. Roberts, 

 Carl Schurz, Rev. Dr. R. S. Storrs, Dr. H. E. Webster, 

 President of Union College ; Gen. Egbert L. Viele ; Treas- 

 urer, Thomas Denny, 30 Pine Street, New York ; Recording- 

 Secretary, E. B. Southwick ; Corresponding Secretary, J. B. 

 Harrison, 52 William Street, New York ; Executive Commit- 

 tee, William Potts, 35 Liberty Street, New York ; Professor D. 

 S. Martin, Edward M. Shephard, Benjamin Strong, W. A. 

 Stiles. 



The officers of the Association are ex officio members of 

 the Executive Committee, and three members will constitute 

 a quorum for the transaction of business. The Committee is 

 authorized to fill all vacancies, and to elect committees for 

 various purposes, and is clothed with all the powers of the 

 Association as its representative when the Association is not 

 in session. It was provided that no debts can be contracted, 

 nor any appropriation made in excess of the money in the 

 treasury available for the purpose. 



The object of the Association is the promotion of effort for 

 the maintenance of forest conditions on the mountain lands 

 of the state. It does not now commit itself to any particular 

 measure as final, or entirely adequate, but it will, as far as 

 possible, co-operate with the State Forest Commission, and 

 with all associations and citizens in favor of any judicious and 



