218 



Garden and Forest. 



[April 30, 1890. 



Truly there is a, great deal more to be got out of this ques- 

 tion of cultivation versus nature than we have seen yet. I learn 

 from Messrs. Vietch that although they could not manage 

 Nepenthes Rajah anyhow when they first received it, yet now 

 they find no difficulty in making it grow and pitcher freely in 

 the same house which contains the general collection of 

 Nepenthes, and where when tried a few years ago it obstinately 

 refused to grow ! This behavior is not an uncommon occur- 

 rence with new introductions. Of course we must believe 

 that some essential condition had been absent when failure 

 was the result, and had been included by accident when suc- 

 cess was attained. 



A comparison of the plants grown by a market-grower in 

 his "rough and ready way " with those of the same kind pro- 

 duced in well equipped gardens generally places the former a 

 long way first. The market gardener has hit upon the condi- 

 tions essential to the healthy growth of his plants, hit upon 

 them by experiment most likely, whilst probably the " scien- 

 tific " cultivator has taken a lot of pains to afford the condi- 

 tions about which the plants are probably indifferent and 

 omitted those upon which everything depends. 

 Kew. IV. Watson. 



The Study of Botany. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — f have been much interested in your various articles 

 advocating the study of botany by young people, and think 

 you may care to print the following sentences as an indica- 

 tion that those who are best qualified to speak on the subject 

 of education are in agreement with your views, f quote from 

 an article called "Education in Boyhood" by President 

 Timothy Dwight, published in the April number of the Forum: 



" I would most heartily respond also to the words of the gentle- 

 men of the Society of Naturalists who have addressed a paper 

 to the teachers of schools and colleges in Avhich they com- 

 mend with special emphasis the study of botany and physical 

 geography for the years of school life. The knowledge of 

 botany gives a joy which should be in the possession of every 

 educated man, and should be gained, as it easily can be, in the 

 early youthful season. Science everywhere brings us into a 

 close relation with nature. The boy in his first days of grow- 

 ing boyhood is open to all the sympathies which this relation 

 bears with itself. Let him by all means have the sympathies 

 awakened. He may not indeed be able to penetrate very 

 deeply into what nature has to reveal to him, but he may see 

 with delight all that he can as yet understand. . . . The be- 

 ginning is never to be lightly thought of, because it has not the 

 fullness of the end. . . . There is cheerful hope for the youth 

 whose mind and heart are stirred with love for all the truth 

 and beauty hidden in the natural world." 



Pittsburg, Penn. W. G. R. 



Hardy Plants at Passaic, New Jersey. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — Hardy plants are such general favorites that a few 

 notes of a hurried visit to the nursery of Mr. Henry Meyer (suc- 

 cessor to Woolson & Co.), at Passaic, New Jersey, may be of 

 interest. Mr. Meyer has lately removed to a property several 

 hundred feet north of his former grounds and now has ample 

 room to develop his growing business. The nursery fronting 

 on the Passaic River and extending back with several acres of 

 plateau, embraces also a wood-covered slope which is being 

 utilized for the naturalization of suitable plants. The houses 

 are long, low, ten-foot spans, especially built for the propagation 

 and protection of hardy and half hardy stock, no tender 

 plants being grown. Though great spaces have been made 

 in the benches by early shipments of plants, all the old favorites 

 and many new ones were to be seen by scores and hundreds. 

 Mr. Orpet, the skillful propagator of the establishment, is an 

 enthusiast in hardy-plant culture, and here may be seen seed- 

 lings of many plants under trial that their merits may be 

 tested before they are sold. Of course in a nursery of 

 this kind little effort is made to grow flowers, but many inter- 

 esting ones could be seen. Primula verticillata is a gem — a 

 strong growing species from Abyssinia with fragrant yellow 

 flowers. The leaves are large, four to five inches long and 

 covered prof usely with "meal"; altogether a charming variety, 

 although of course requiring the protection of glass and 

 attention in the way of careful watering. P. cortusoides is 

 also a very satisfactory species just coming into bloom. This 

 also seems happier in a house or frame. Dianthus lati- 

 folius was a mass of rich, large, crimson blooms. If this 

 variety proves as continuous a bloomer as it now promises 

 to be it will be a first rate garden plant. Pinks usually have 



much too short a blooming season. The Clove Pinks were 

 here in great variety, but " Paul Engelheart " with its great 

 crimson flowers on rigid stems was the only one in bloom. 

 The Drabas are neat little alpine plants. Two good ones are 

 D. bruniifolia (Caucasian), which was showing its yellow flow- 

 ers above dense mats of light yellow foliage, and D. cuspi- 

 data, with its attractive bronzy rosettes. A new alpine is the 

 double-flowered Alsine vema, which forms carpets of very 

 fine dark green foliage, studded with pure white small double 

 flowers. It is a gem for the rockery. 



In the frames were blooming Isopyrum biter natum, a charm- 

 ing native plant with the aspect of the little wood Anemone. 

 Anemone Apennina, with its beautiful blue flowers, was in full 

 bloom, following closely A. blanda, whose season has ended. 

 Shortia established in pots showed its lovely white flowers. 

 White Violets and Phlox subulata made charming bits of color. 

 In the fields the hybrid Hellebores were still in bloom, quite 

 uninjured by any weather changes. Polyanthus and Auriculas 

 were of course in force. Unless for trade purposes it seems a 

 mistake to grow the former of these in frames, as on a well 

 drained border they are perfectly hardy and much more florifer- 

 ous than the plants protected by frames, where their energies 

 seem to tend more to the production of leaves. Alstrcemerias 

 are favorite plants here, A. aurantiaca and A. Peruviana being 

 established in warm quarters, while the somewhat rare A. pere- 

 grina alba was opening its pure white blooms in one of the 

 houses. A large breadth of Chionodoxa Lucilice was a brilliant 

 picture in blue, rivaled by the light blue flowers of Scilla 

 puschkinioides, one of the best of the early Squills. Narcissi 

 are grown in great abundance, Mr. Woolson in former years 

 having had a very large collection which he was wont to ex- 

 hibit at the shows of the New York Horticultural Society. The 

 collection is somewhat reduced now and comprises principally 

 the bold growing kinds of the most esteemed varieties. 

 Henry Irving and Sir Watkin had passed out of bloom, but be- 

 side a grand lot of Horsfield's variety in its prime, the numer- 

 ous other kinds seemed only fair, though favored with all the 

 fashionable names. 



Time was too limited to investigate the treasures of the hill- 

 side, where it would seem that many shade-loving plants could 

 be grown very successfully; but it was pleasing to see testi- 

 mony of the growing demand for well known plants in the 

 great stock of Aquilegias, Artemisias, Phloxes, Irises of all 

 lands, Coreopsis lanceolata, Erica carnea, Daphne Cneorum, 

 Anemone Japonica and scores of other sterling old-fashioned 

 kinds among the novelties of promise. 



New York. G. 



Recent Publications. 



The Garden, as Considered in Polite Literature; with a 

 Critical Essay by Walter Howe. New York : G. P. Putnam's 

 Sons. 



Inside and out this is one of the most charming little books 

 ever presented to lovers of gardens. As it forms the twenty- 

 seventh volume of the Messrs. Putnam's well known "Knick- 

 erbocker Nugget Series," the character of its pretty binding 

 and delicate typography do not need particularly explanation. 

 The essays it contains begin with Pliny the Elder's "Pleasures 

 of the Garden," which is followed by his nephew's famous de- 

 scriptions of his two country-seats, types of the more modest 

 and the most sumptuous kinds of Roman villas. Bacon is the 

 next author quoted, with his delightful little paper " On Gar- 

 dens," and Sir William Temple follows. Then come three 

 essays from the Spectator, two by Addison, and one which has 

 been variously attributed to Pope and to Dr. Parnell. A chapter 

 of Pope's from the Guardian and Lady Mary Wortley Monta- 

 gue's "Letters to the Countess of Bute" succeed; and then we 

 have extracts from Whateley's "Observations of Modern Gar- 

 dening," from which is usually dated the rise of our literature 

 dealing systematically with gardens of the modern, natural, 

 landscape sort. Oliver Goldsmith's " Description of a Chinese 

 Garden" and "History of a Poet's Garden," and Horace Wal- 

 pole's little biography of Kent and " History of the Modern 

 Taste in Gardening " are then given, and the book concludes 

 with John Evelyn's " Of Fences and Quickset Hedges," which 

 is placed out of its chronological position, yet wisely, as it dif- 

 fers from the other essays in being of a less general character. 



All these essays are of course familiar to students of litera- 

 ture and of the history of gardening. But even to readers of 

 this kind their association in a single volume will give them a 

 fresh charm, and they will undoubtedly be new to many 

 whose interest in gardens has been of a practical rather than 

 a literary sort. But their value to either class of readers 

 would have been far smaller without the delightful and in- 



