May 22, 1889.] 



Garden and Forest. 



243 



stone or in books — has not developed in some conspicuous, 



national, individual way, has left more than the memory of a 



name behind. ,, ^ rr 



New York. M. G. Van Kensselaer. 



Foreign Correspondence. 



London Letter. 



The English Flower-Garden, by W. Robinson, London, 

 was published in 1883, and now a second edition of the 

 book is issued. In England we have no work which deals 

 with the subject of the garden, and how to make it beau- 

 tiful and interesting, so thoroughly as does this by Mr. Robin- 

 son. In the effort to reform the style of Hovver-garden which 

 in England was prevalent ten years or so ago, no man worked 

 with greater zeal and persistence than did Mr. Robinson. 

 Indeed it might be said that he alone was the founder of the 

 style of gardening known as the natural style, as it exists in so 

 many English gardens to-day. With the aid of his various 

 books and periodicals he has forced his views and opinions 

 down the throats, as it were, of horticultiu'ists, so that in place 

 of the strong and bitter opposition which assailed Mr. Robin- 

 son and his followers ten years ago we have now general con- 

 currence in all they taught ; and English gardens have been 

 greatly beautified in consequence. The herbaceous border, 

 wild garden and natural arrangement in regard to almost all 

 hardy plants are now features in all good English gardens. 

 Following on a change in the style of gardening we have a 

 great demand for hardy plants of all kinds, giving an impetus 

 to the introduction anci distribution of hosts of beautiful flow- 

 ering-plants which a few years ago were practically unknown 

 in horticulture. " Few know tlie many flowers fitted to adorn 

 our open-air gardens. No stereotyped garden of half a dozen 

 kinds of plants will satisfy any one who knows that hundreds 

 of beautiful aspects of vegetation are possible in a garden in 

 spring, summer and autumn. It is disheartening to see how 

 little pleasure men get out of their gardens, and how near to a 

 desert they make them in this country of verdure and fertility. 

 Yet the smallest garden may be a picture and a pretty one. 

 Not only may we easily have much more variety in any one 

 garden, and that of the highest beauty, but if men would give 

 up mere imitation we should be charmed with the contrasts 

 between gardens. Even sniall gardens might refresh us with 

 their brightness and their pleasant variety. In the larger gar- 

 dens opportunities are great — and seldom used. They are 

 stereotyped at the season when they ought to be full of deliglit- 

 ful change." These are Mr. Robinson's words. His book is 

 intended to show what a wealth of tlowers and beautiful plants 

 are available for out-door gardens. It is profusely illustrated, 

 the descriptive and cultural information is all that one could 

 wish for, and the suggestive observations on position, style and 

 taste in arrangement which form the first part of the book, are 

 sure to be of service to amateurs. Some of the most charac- 

 teristic of English gardens are illustrated and described, as triso 

 are a few of what the author considers of the worst style. 

 There is also a supplement l^y Mr. W. Goldring; in which the 

 best of hardy trees and shrubs are described and directions 

 given for their culture and management. Mr. Goldring is one 

 of the very few English landscape-gardeners who comi)ine a 

 wide knowledge of plants of all kinds, with skill to use them 

 to the best advantage in the construction of gardens. When 

 this is the case it naturally follows that consideraljle variety in 

 style and effect is easily obtained, whereas a landscape-gar- 

 dener, with only a limited knowledge of plant-material, must 

 necessarily make his gardens very much alike. "The English 

 Flower-Garden" is too comprehensive a titleforMr. Rol)inson's 

 book, as it does not embrace in-door gardening at all. There 

 is as much pleasure in good in-door gardening as in that prac- 

 ticed in the open, whilst a great deal more care and skill are 

 required in the managenjent of in-door plants than is neces- 

 sary for those which thrive out-of-doors. 



Following on the heels of Primrose Day, we had last Tues- 

 day a display of Auriculas, Polyanthuses and other Primulas 

 such as had scarcely if ever been seen in the south of Eng- 

 land before. The Auricula Society nourishes almost if not 

 quite as well in the neighborhood of London as in Manches- 

 ter and other northern towns. Mr. Horner, the acknowledged 

 king of the Auricida cult, read an interesting paper ontlie 

 breeding of Auriculas, and recommended a more severe 

 selection if better varieties were to be obtained. He despised 

 Fancies and Alpines, notwithstanding the fact of so many pre- 

 ferring them to the show kinds. The history of the Auricula 

 Society is most interesting. Its strongest supporters have 

 been, and still are, men who live in towns, generally smoky 

 towns. Mr. Horner told a story of a famous northern Auric- 



ula grower who, when he sa\\' the blackened grass, trees and 

 shrubs which stand for St. Paul's Cathedral garden, right in 

 the heart of London, declared that if he had that garden he 

 would grow better Auriculas than had yet been dreamt of. 

 Besides the Auriculas, however, there was a great display of 

 Polyanthuses of all shades; the common Primrose, too, was 

 represented by many varieties, whilst of exotic kinds there 

 were many very pretty and rare ones shown. P. Sieboldii, the 

 Japanese variety of P. corttisoides, and one of the most orna- 

 mental of all Primulas, was exhibited in splendid form by 

 Messrs. Ryder & Son, of Sale, near Manchester. There were 

 all shades from white to purple, as well as variegated, each 

 variety being represented by a large pan-full of plants six 

 inches or so high, with perfect flowers and foliage. One of 

 the easiest to manage, requiring the coolest and airiest posi- 

 tion if grown in a frame or green-house, though it is perfectly 

 hardy, this species should become as popular in the garden 

 as any we have. The meeting was essentially a spring-Uower 

 day. Daffodils were shown in thousands, and never finer. 

 Liliuni Thoinsonianwn, with a spike two feet high, bearing fif- 

 teen elegant lavender-colored flowers, was amongst a group 

 of hardy plants shown by Mr. Ware, as also was the double- 

 flowered Lily-of-the-Valley, a curiosity only, and far less pretty 

 than the single form, though apparently much larger in its 

 proportions. A distinct and pretty Epiphyllum called Makoy- 

 anum was exhibited by Messrs. Veitch, and obtained a first- 

 class certificate. It differs from all other known kinds in hav- 

 ing flowers which in shape are like those of a Phyllocactus, i. e., 

 the petals all radiate from the centre instead of forming a kind 

 of tube and irregular limb, as in E. truncatwn. In the former 

 the petals number about fifteen, and are narrow, acuminate, 

 one and a half inches long, crimson outside, salmon-red in- 

 side. There is another, if not the same as this, known as ^. 

 Gcertneri, and which was certificated at South Kensington in 

 1885. Rhododendron Her Majesty, from the same firm, also 

 obtained a certificate. It is a beautiful flowered plant with 

 small, oblong, leathery leaves and large-spreading, rather flat- 

 tened flowers five inches across, the margins undulate and the 

 petals of good substance. They were white, with a faint Hush 

 of rose. This plant is said to be a hybrid from A', arboreum 

 and R. Fostfrianuiu, but there were no traces of the former 

 species in the plant shown by Messrs. Veitch. 



In the coUecfion of plants sent from Kew were flowering 

 specimens of two very interesting root parasites, viz., Lathrcea 

 squainaria and L. clandestina, the former a British plant, the 

 latter a nafive of the European Continent. These remarkable 

 plants are not easy to estaijlish in gardens, but when once they 

 take hold they increase rapidly and flower al.nindantly every 

 year. L. squainaria grows only on the roots of the Elm, al- 

 though it is supposed that Rhododendron ponticuni is another 

 host-plant for it. L. clandestina is on the roots of a Willow in 

 wet ground near a lake. The flowers are clustered, tubular, one 

 aiid a half inches long, and deep puri^le in color. Heuchera 

 sanguinea is a delightful litfle plant for pot culture. In the Kew 

 conservatory it has been a picture of elegance and color for 

 a month or more. It is easy to manage if kept in a cold frame 

 and placed in a slightly heated green-house in March. Nothing- 

 could 1)0 prettier than the flowers of this plant, and the color 

 harmonizes with almost any flower. The prettiest arrange- 

 ment at Kew is a mixture ot the Heuchera with Lilv-of-the- 

 Valley. 



The following rare and interesting as well as pretty-flowered 

 green-house plants are now flowering at Kew : 



Protea nana. — A dwarf sijecies of a very ornamental genus 

 of Cape shrubs, which fifty years ago were popular in Eng- 

 lish horticulture, though now hardly known. The plant under 

 notice is a dwarf grower, being only fifteen inches high, well 

 branched, the leaves linear, one .inch long and pointed, the 

 flower-heads terminal and drooping. Each head is cup- 

 shaped, two and a half inches across, and is composed of 

 numerous overlapping, petal-like bracts colored deep crim- 

 son. The flowers proper are arranged in a cluster, like the 

 pappus in Coniposita\ in the middle of the cup. There are 

 many species of Proteas in abundance at the Cape, and as they 

 appear to be as easily managed under cultivation as Camel- 

 lias, they are worth obtaining. Some of them bear very large 

 flower-heads, colored brightly. They are also remarkable 

 for the cojiious secretion of nectar in the cup-like flower- 

 heads, some of the species secreting so much that the Boers 

 collect it and make sugar from it. 



Befaria i^lauca. — This is the Andean Rhododendron already 

 mentioned in one of my letters. It is evidently a free-flower- 

 ing plant when once it has got to the flowering age. The 

 large, erect, crowded terminal racemes of rosy flowers on 

 plaWs three feet high are distinct and ornamental'. 



