362 



Garden and Forest. 



[July 31, iS 



cross would do it less damage. The path might keep 

 even boys' feet from straying into less desirable directions, 

 while those for whose especial benefit it was formed 

 would, of course, be Umited by its bounds. If even the 

 rudest, simplest paths were thus generally formed in our 

 rural neighborhoods their influence would at once be felt 

 in the village itself as well as in the summer colony. Ask 

 any farmer's daughter why she does not walk more and 

 she will 'answer, like the city woman, "Where shall I 

 walk ? The road is unattractive, the meadows and woods 

 are always more or less difficult to cross and often impas- 

 sable." More paths and simple bridges and stiles are 

 what we need, alike in the interests of healthful physical 

 development and of healthful growth in the sentiment for 

 Nature. 



How to Mask the Foundations of a Country 

 House. — n. 



IT was stated last week that, no matter how good a chance 

 Nature may give the architect to unite his house-founda- 

 tions well with the soil, the aid of the planter is always needed 

 to make the union perfect. Nature's help is greatest when 

 the site is broken and rocky and the foundations can be built 

 of rough-faced local stone. Then, as we tried to explain, 

 vines alone may often suflSce to blend her work agreeably 

 with man's, but one kind is not so effective for the purpose as 

 a mingling of several harmonious yet contrasting kinds. 



Wistaria, Virginia Creeper and the so-called Japanese Ivy 

 are most commonly used in this part of the country for plant- 

 ing against houses. They are very beautiful, each in its own 

 way. The Wistaria needs some support other than that which 

 a flat wall supplies, and though it may be trained on wires, it 

 is most effective when covering a balcony or trellis, forming 

 irregular masses that are scarcely more charming in profuse 

 flower in spring than later when the foliage is fully developed. 

 The Virginia Creeper adapts itself in the most versatile way to 

 such support as it may find, now twining around a fence or 

 lattice and throwing out long free garlands, and now spreading 

 a flat yet gracefully flowing mantle over wide level surfaces. 

 It stands midway in habit between the Japanese Ivy and the 

 Wistaria, less massive than the latter, less close and uniform 

 than the former. A judicious union of these three vines on a 

 country house is far more beautiful than either alone could be, 

 that spot being chosen for each where, from its manner of 

 growth, it will look particularly well. But the list need not be 

 so short as this. There are a multitude of other hardy creep- 

 ers which ought to be commonly employed — Climbing Roses, 

 for instance, Honeysuckles, Clematis, and above all the Trum- 

 pet Creeper. Quite apart from the splendid clusters of orange- 

 colored flowers which this produces in mid-summer, the 

 beautiful form of its leaves, the charming masses they make 

 when it is rightly cared for, and especially its dark-green hue, 

 render it a most valuable plant to contrast with others. The 

 Japanese Ivy, it may be added, looks best when clinging to 

 stone or brick. It is never lovelier than in winter with its 

 delicate tracery of leafless branches, as though etched by some 

 skillful decorator's hand ; and this tracery does not show nearly 

 so well on wood as on other materials. 



Of annuals we do not speak in this connection. Their 

 variety is endless, and the beauty of some of them is very 

 great. But when the object is to give the walls of the house 

 a garment which will unite it with the ground from which it 

 springs, plants of a more lasting kind should be chosen. Other- 

 wise the work will never be thoroughly well accomplished, 

 and what is done will have to be done over year after year. 

 Annual creepers may be planted among those that are per- 

 manently established, but should not be relied upon for the 

 main adornment of the house. Moreover, if vines alone are 

 used about the foundations of a house, some should be of 

 evergreen varieties. We want the walls to look united with 

 the site in winter as well as summer, though when all Nature 

 is stripped half bare the harmonizing garment need not be so 

 extensive as when she is fully clothed. 



But in the majority of cases vines alone should not be 

 depended upon for the purpose we are discussing. Unless 

 very irregular rocks form the foundation upon which the walls 

 are set, they will need more massive and spreading foliage at 

 their base. The fact is generally acknowledged to-day by the 

 owners of country and suburban homes— for we seldom see 

 one where plantations have not been made close to the walls, 

 at least along some part of their course. Unfortunately these 

 plantations are usually flower-beds filled with annuals or tender 



ornamental plants. Their effect is, perhaps, better than utter 

 nakedness, although when the choice is a particularly tasteless 

 one even as much as this cannot be granted. In the first 

 place, what has been said of annual creepers applies equally 

 to tender plants of other sorts — the work is done, the effect is 

 produced, for the season merely. When winter comes, naked- 

 ness returns in a worse shape than if no flowers had been 

 planted — the house stands not on grass even but on a line of 

 empty earth which makes its want of harmony with its sur- 

 roundings most painfully apparent. And then in the spring 

 the labor of clothing its base must be begun again. In the 

 second place flower-beds are too monotonous. We need 

 variety in the clothing green ; we need to diversify it by mass- 

 ing, by carrying it up in certain places higher than in others, and 

 by spreading it out here and there to connect or group with 

 other plantations in the vicinity. What we want to mitigate is 

 that rigid formality of architectural features which does not 

 blend with the undulating variety of growing things ; and a 

 flower-bed is almost as artificial, as rigid in effect, as founda- 

 tion-courses of masonry. Of course, if the whole garden is 

 formally disposed, then the base-plantations may correspond ; 

 but such cases are rare in this country, and a natural arrange- 

 ment of the grounds demands a thoroughly natural looking 

 garment for the lower walls. Hardy shrubs are the things 

 required. How they should be chosen, and, in a general way, 

 how they should be planted, we shall try to point out in a future 

 chapter. 



Recent Botanical Discoveries in China. — V. 



Lilium. — Considering the number of magnificent species 

 previously known to inhabit eastern Asia it was hardly to be 

 expected that further discoveries would surpass them in 

 beauty or brilliancy, yet Dr. Henry has added one very hand" 

 some new species (Z. Henryi, Baker); and he has also sen^ 

 specimens of L. glgantciun and L. cordifoliiim, which were pre" 

 viously unknown, from China. In general habit, Mr. Baker 

 states, L. Henryi most resembles L. tigriniim, but the fully- 

 developed leaves rather recall those of L. aitratwn, and the 

 narrow perianth segments those of L. polyphyllum. The 

 flowers are borne in loose corymbs, sometimes a foot across, 

 and consisting from four to eight yellow, red-spotted fiowers 

 from three to three inches and a half long. L. Diichartrei and 

 L. Davidi are new species of the affinity of L. speciosum, dis- 

 covered by the Abb^ David in Eastern Thibet. They all await 

 introduction. 



Euoiiymus. — A score of species, at least, inhabit China, but 

 among the novelties there is nothing to equal the familiar and 

 favorite E. J aponiciis in its numerous varieties. E. gracillimiis 

 is an evergreen, exceedingly slender-branched species, founded 

 upon a specimen collected by Mr. J. Reeves, who resided at 

 Canton between 1820 and 1830, and introduced many Chinese 

 plants into English gardens, and after whom Lindley named the 

 Chinese genus Reevesia. E. carnosus is an evergreen species 

 from Formosa, allied to and very similar to E. Japonicus, but 

 probably not so hardy. It is remarkable for the large fleshy 

 calyx and disk. Among the unnamed specimens of Euonymus 

 received at Kew since the publication of the second part of the 

 "Index" is one with lanceolate evergreen leaves, three to five 

 inches long. It is from the neighborhood of Ichang, and may 

 be worth the attention of a horticultural collector. 



Celastrus. — Two new species of this genus are described in 

 the "Index" — namely, C. latifolius ■ax\.(S. C. variabilis. The for- 

 mer is said to be a dwarf shrub, though it has oblong or orbicular 

 leaves six inches across, and the flowers are in long, narrow, 

 terininal panicles, suggesting a plant of larger stature. It hardly 

 comes within the category of ornamental shrubs, but is of 

 interest in another respect. According to Dr. Henry it bears a 

 name equivalent to "turnip-fly-killer," and the leaves and 

 shoots are dried in the sun and pounded to a powder that is 

 reputed to be very efficacious in killing insects that infest 

 Cabbage, Turnips and allied plants. C. variabilis is a trailing, 

 often spiny shrub, of interest only to those who form botanical 

 collections. 



Hydrangea. — Although the number of species enumerated 

 as Chinese does not exceed seven, the forms are very numerous 

 and many of them highly ornamental, and they probably 

 originated under cultivation. Thus of the protean H. Hortensia 

 I have seen no specimens of undoubted wild origin ; possibly, 

 however, those collected by Wright in the Luchu Archipelago 

 may have been obtained from wild plants. 



Among the novelties sent by Dr. Henry are several forms 

 which I have doubtingly referred to H. scabra, which, so far as 

 I am aware, is not in cultivation. One which I have named H. 

 scabra, var. (?) macrophylla, has elegant leaves nearly a foot 

 long and corymbs of flower six inches across. Another, var. 



