322 



Garden and Forest. 



[July 3, i5 



tions of the different sorts of Japanese pleasure-grounds and 

 lists of the plants most commonly used to adorn them. No 

 pag'c is without its interest and significance, but Professor 

 Rein speaks with less enthusiasm than most travelers of the 

 effects beloved by Japanese gardeners. He does not seem to 

 accept their point of view and recognize that it is thoroughly 

 artistic although quite imlike the Europeaa point of view. He 

 sees little but a painful artificiality in Japanese attempts to 

 make pictures of wide landscapes on a miniatin-e scale — he 

 sees only the process and not the illusive effect upon which a 

 Japanese eye would dwell. With regard to the methods em- 

 ployed for dwarfing plants and the extraordinary results 

 achieved he gives some interesting facts. "To produce a slow 

 growth they choose particularly small seeds from a poorly 

 developed individual plant. Frequent cutting back has been 

 found even more effective, also planting in pots of insufficient 

 size. Twisting the twigs and stems in a horizontal spiral di- 

 rection has the same effect, and the refrigeration of the 

 ground and roots by evaporadon, using porous pots. Grafting 

 is often also a means to this end, i. e., it serves to check 

 natural development. It is employed especially in the many 

 varieties oi Acer poly morpJnini, and is usually effected accord- 

 ing to the oldest methods known to gardening — grafting by 

 approach, as it is called. Some of the results obtained in 

 Cliinese and Japanese gardening in dwarfing species are very 

 siu'prising. Kjempfer relates that he once saw growing to- 

 gether in a small box, four inches long, one and one-half 

 inches broad and six inches high, a Bamboo-cane, a Pine-tree 

 and a blooming Plum-tree. The price of this group of dwarfs 

 was nearly ^100 — an evidence of thedifliculty and tediousness 

 of the accomplishment, and also a token of the high estima- 

 tion of such abnormal forms. Whoever visits a Japanese art 

 and trade-garden in spring will notice in company with these 

 dwarf forms yet another kind of popular plant-maiming which 

 is usually practiced oji the Mume Plum. Young and bloom- 

 ing shoots from stumps, four to twelve inches in height, 

 ai'e wound about these or bent over them umbrella-fashion. 

 Often the trunk is cut down even to the ground so that the 

 small blooming offshoot looks like an independent tree." The 

 great number of plants with variegated leaves, produced in 

 Japan, is likewise noted by the author, with wise advice as to 

 the danger run by European gardeners in introducing them 

 profusely into their plantations. He speaks also of the fact 

 that the Japanese do not like to separate flowers from their 

 stems and gather them in bunches, admiring far more their 

 individual beauty under natural conditions — "lovely blossoms 

 and leaves on their stem or slender twigs, the Iris and die 

 Lotus-flowers on its long stem." But he adds that " one would 

 scarcely suppose that under such circumstances there could 

 be such a thing as ' the art of arranging flo\vers ' in set 

 pieces ; " thinks that the art which goes by this name depends 

 too much upon the forms of vases^and other receptacles, and 

 seems to deplore the fact that " the arrangement and coloring 

 of bouquets is not understood by the Japanese." This very 

 fact is usually cited with admiration by visitors to Japan, and 

 once again Professor Rein shows a lack of sympathetic 

 arfistic instinct. But this lack should not, of course, be 

 weighed in the balance against the numerous gifts and merits 

 which his volume, as a whole, reveals, and we can heartily 

 recommend it to all who desire a knowledge either of the 

 natural products of Japan or of the industries dependent upon 

 them. Its greatest value springs from the fact that these two 

 subjects, so often disassociated in print, are considered to- 

 gether, and, are systematically, clearly and fully set forth in 

 their mutual relationships. 



Periodical Literature. 



It is pleasant to find that our architectural journals are turn- 

 ing their attention to the allied art of landscape-gardening. 

 The connection between the two arts is so close as to be of 

 vital importance to the welfare of both; and we hope that many 

 architects will inwardly digest the excellent articles on " Land- 

 scape-gardening and its Relations to Rural Architecture," by 

 the late J. A. McKenzie, and recently published in Build- 

 ing. The first chapter is devoted to the general principles 

 which underlie the subject. To quote from it at length would 

 merely be to repeat what has already often been said in these 

 columns ; yet it can hardly be too often repeated that while we 

 have comparatively few good landscape-gardeners in this 

 country, we have some of the very best ; that an intelligent 

 demand for more will surely create a supply ; tliat no body of 

 men can "promote this deniand with greater influence than 

 architects," and that " they are really interested in its promo- 

 tion as much, if not more, than anv others." The writer 



does not over-state the case when he says that to start to lay 

 out a place without some comprehensive preliminary scheme 

 is as great a piece of folly as it would be to essay to "erect a 

 mansion piecemeal, room by room or wing by wing, ignoring 

 the general appearance of the whole structure when completed; 

 each individual section as it is constructed may be perfect, but 

 the tout ensemble, unless by some happy and remote accident, 

 will, to a certainty, be a failure, lacking coherence and har- 

 mony." A significant paragraph is likewise the following : 

 " One reason for the hesitation of owners to seek the assistance 

 of experts when about to layout their properties may be traced 

 to the damage done by the innumerable so-called landscape- 

 gardeners, who generally combine with their professional (?) 

 work the more appropriate and modest calling of 'jobbing 

 gardener.' If these are the specimens from whom any one 

 deducts his opinion of landscape-gardening, no wonder he is 

 disgusted and prefers to do the work himself or allow his gar- 

 dener to do as he pleases. For these men never think it worth 

 wdiile to prepare a design, and the result is that where they do 

 not entirely obliterate what natural beauty the place possessed 

 before their ruthless spades started to work, they wholly fail to 

 grasp the opportunities for enhancing those beauties and nat- 

 ural eft'ects which have really stared them in the face. And 

 their work usually runs into enormous expenditure in propor- 

 tion to what is done ; for, owing to their gross ignorance, use- 

 less work is often executed, and work done has as often to be 

 torn down and executed afresh." Truly, it is not such men as 

 these whom we have had in mind in claiming, so often, a wider 

 and franker recognition of the claims of the landscape-gar- 

 dener to be thearchitect's'helperon equal terms. It is the thor- 

 oughly trained and experienced artist who should be chosen ; 

 and any proprietor who really desires to find him can do so 

 without a great deal of trouble. As the lamented writer says, the 

 fact that make-believe artists have any standing in the com- 

 munity is simply because their employers are not "as ap- 

 preciative of the "difficulties of landscape-gardening as they are 

 of those of architecture." His second chapter is devoted to a 

 systematic consideration of the various tasks which the land- 

 scape-gardener must execute, such as choosing the location of 

 buildings, grading, forming carriage approaches, roads and 

 walks, managing lakes and water scenery, planting, and treating 

 small properties and suburban lots ; and with regard to all 

 points wise advice of a general sort is given. " As to the future 

 of landscape-gardening in this country," the author remarks 

 towards the end of his valuable sermon, "there can be no 

 doubt ; there are already substantial signs that a taste for it 

 has taken hold of a considerable class of country residents. 

 What is wanted is to extend that taste and develop it and inter- 

 est all property-owners in its cultivation." And we may con- 

 clude with another brief quotation, which concisely expresses 

 the gist of the whole matter ; " The question is often asked, 

 What is really the proper work of the landscape-gardener ? 

 The answer is. Everything that is done to a property which 

 will in any way alter its appearance comes naturally and prop- 

 erly within his scope." 



Correspondence. 

 Unappreciated Trees. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — He who plants a tree, of any kind, is almost always so 

 certainly a public benefactor, that it appears ungracious 

 to find any fault with him ; nevertheless, I feel like quarreling 

 with park-superintendents and landscape-designers, as well as 

 with the less pretentious planters, for their indifference to- 

 wards certain of our most beautiful indigenous trees. 



The Beech, Fagus sylvatica, unites the sturdiness of the Oak, 

 the shapeliness of the Maple and flie dignity of the- Elm. It is 

 the cleanest limbed of all trees, its smoodi ashen-colored bark 

 being almost unbroken from base to summit. No tree has a 

 denser or a richer foliage than the Beech, and its buds are 

 nearly as beautiful as its perfect leaf; long, tapering and pointed, 

 with a ruddy tinge, perceptible even in midwinter. Standing 

 a little distance oh" and in the right light, the body of the tree 

 upon a winter's day appears suffused with a faint blush, which, 

 upon the approach of spring, becomes a full coral fint, such 

 as fringes the afterglow of a November sunset. The Beech 

 is a tree of remarkable symmetry, preserving the same pro- 

 portion in trunk, limb and leaf. It is persistent to one type, 

 always and everywhere a thorougbred. 



The Yellow Birch, Betula hitea, has the fineness of limb 

 and of foliage which distinguishes all the Birches, but its chief 

 attracfion is the thin, film-like pellicle or scurf-skin forming 

 the outermost part of its bark. This fine covering peels par- 

 tially off from the trunk and larger branches, remaining 



