August 28, 1889.] 



Garden and Forest. 



411 



fellow-worker in the late Rev. M. A. Curtis, of North Carolina. 

 Not less than twenty-five papers, including- these published 

 conjointly by Berkeley and Curtis, contain notices of North 

 American Fungi ; the "Notices of North American Fungi " in 

 Grevillea, 1872-76, alone having descriptions of over one 

 thousand species, almost all of them new. 



Berkeley was a man of a singularly sweet and frank nature, 

 and, although, with advancing years and increasing bodily in- 

 infirmity, he was forced to live in retirement, he was still the 

 leader of British mycologists, beloved and respected by all. 

 Those who knew him in his prime, or even in his declining 

 years when unable to associate freely with scientific men, as 

 was his wont, recall his unvarying courtesy, his constant readi- 

 ness to aid others in their studies, his simple and cordial 

 manner. With a large family, forced to depend on the mod- 

 est income of a remote parish, we are compelled to admire 

 the courage and energy which enabled him to accomplish so 

 much for science, and only regret that he had not been 

 placed early in life in some position where he could have de- 

 voted his whole activity to the pursuit of his favorite science. 



Berkeley's personal appearance was very striking. His 

 large frame, his dignified and intellectual face, admirably set 

 off by his full, white beard and flowing hair, commanded at 

 once the respect, which an acquaintance with his elevated 

 character and unselfish disposition served only to deepen. 



W. G. F. 



The Fairbanks House at Dedham. 



OUR picture on page 415 shows a house in the town of Ded- 

 ham, near Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the oldest 

 houses in this country which is still intact and habitable, and 

 undoubtedly the very oldest in which descendants of its builder 

 live to-day. The builder of this house was Jonathan Fairbanks, 

 a native of the West Riding of Yorlcshire. He landed in 

 America in the year 1633, lived for three years in Boston, and 

 then built the house we illustrate in the year when the town 

 of Dedham was incorporated. At his death, in 1668, he left it 

 to his eldest son, John, and his offspring in the male line have 

 since uninterruptedly inhabited it. The seventh generation 

 now dwells within its venerable walls, and the care and good 

 taste they display in its preservation are exceptional in this 

 land of little respect for ancient relics and too-frequent desire 

 for showy surroundings rather than for those which are har- 

 monious and therefore beautiful. 



The original house has never been altered, but now forms 

 the central portion of the picturesque little group of walls and 

 roofs. The wings were added about one hundred and fifty 

 years ago, and although, perhaps, no conscious desire for 

 good, architectural effect guided their designing, their pres- 

 ence greatly increases, instead of injuring, the charm of the 

 simple first building The shingled roofs, of course, have 

 been repaired from time to time, but only as necessity com- 

 pelled, and without disturbance of the weather-stains and 

 lichens, which give a beautiful greenish tone that contrasts 

 delightfully with the soft, unpainted gray of the walls. The 

 house stands a short way back from the road, raised on a 

 gentle little hill. This is covered with good turf, kept suffi- 

 ciently neat, but not rolled and tended as a lawn might be 

 about a more pretentious residence. A number of great Elm- 

 trees overshadow the slope and the house itself, disposed in an 

 irregular way, which under the circumstances could hardly be 

 improved upon. They must be nearly if not quite as old as 

 the house itself. The simple dignity of eft'ect produced by 

 this use of a single kind of tree, especially well adapted to its 

 purpose, may teach a useful lesson to the owners of the villa and 

 cottage of to-day. Now it is the custom to plant a variety of 

 trees even when the grounds are as small as these of the 

 Fairbanks house, and little thought is usually given to their 

 grouping. Consequently we most often see a huddled, inliar- 

 monious result, in which the beauty of the individual trees dis- 

 appears, and the place as a whole is deprived of character as 

 well as of unity. But even when most carefully grouped it is 

 a question whether the association of different trees in a very 

 small place could be quite as beautiful — quite as simple, dig- 

 nified, and harmonious — as is this company of wide-spreading 

 Elms, so thoroughly expressive of shelter and of shadow, and 

 each so admirably developed. 



But perhaps the most noteworthy point in the attractive pic- 

 ture presented by this house and its surroundings is the way 

 in which the shrubberies grow about it. Lilacs and other old- 

 fashioned shrubs were planted long ago close to the founda- 

 tions, and have been allowed to develop freely while kept from 

 undue raggedness. Now, as will be seen, they overtop the 

 humble walls in many places and group with the sloping roofs 



in a fashion which must strongly attract the eye of every wan- 

 dering landscape-painter. In summer, tall Hollyhocks and 

 Dahlias grow in clumps close to the house, giving just the 

 notes of brilliant color needed to complete the pretty picture 

 it makes ; but no formal beds or flaunting, "new-fashioned" 

 flowers are allowed to introduce a discordant accent. No old 

 English cottage seems a more integral part of its natural sur- 

 roundings than does this little New England home, and none 

 is more picturesque than this despite its characteristically 

 American shape and material. Time, we see, can sanctify and 

 beautify even a wooden house of the humblest proportions, if 

 only the hand of man gives it a little aid in the way of taste- 

 fully planted trees and shrubs, and then does not interfere 

 with its work. Here no inharmonious element has been 

 introduced — each feature and detail suits all the others, and 

 the general effect, although it is simply that of a small, unpre- 

 tentious farm-house, lacks neither refinement nor true beauty. 

 A single bed of Coleus, a single attempt to prune the luxuriant 

 shrubs into a more "orderly" form, a single touch of 

 crude paint on the house itself, a single architectural "im- 

 provement" of modern fashion, would ruin it all. Fortu- 

 nately, nothing of the sort has ever been attempted; and it is to 

 be hoped that, even when descendants of Jonathan Fairbanks 

 no longer dwell beneath his roof-tree, he into whose possession 

 it may come will prove himself possessed of as much rever- 

 ence and good taste as they. So scarce and precious, indeed, 

 are relics such as this in America that the town-fathers of Ded- 

 ham might well desire to take it under their own protection, to 

 assure preservation for as many centuries as its sturdy timbers 

 can still endure. 



The photograph from which our illustration is reproduced 

 was made by Miss A. L. Rotch, to whom we are indebted for 

 its use. 



Notes Upon Some North American Trees. — VII. 



125. Crataegus arborescens, Ell. — This name was pub- 

 lished by Elliott (Sketch of the Botany of South CaroHna 

 and Georgia, i., 550) in 1821. Linnaeus' herbarium, how- 

 ever, shows that he knew this plant, and that it is his Cra- 

 Icegiis viridis (Species Plantarum, 476). The specimen is 

 in flower. It has no thorns, and exactly represents the 

 common glabrous form of this now well-known plant. An 

 almost identical specimen is found in the herbarium of the 

 " Hortus Cliffortianus " preserved in the British Museum. 

 Professor Gray, who examined the Linnsean herbarium in 

 1839, wrote in pencil on the sheet of C. viridis "certainly a 

 distinct species, A. Gray," having reference to the fact that 

 C. viridis has been referred by American botanists to C. coc- 

 cinea. The fact, however, of its identity with Elliott's plant, 

 at that time very little known, seems to have escaped his 

 notice. It is not clear from whom Linna?us derived his 

 specimen. The species is credited in the "Species Planta- 

 rum" to Virginia, but this tree is not known to grow now 

 anywhere north of the valley of the Savannah River. Dr. 

 John Garden, who lived in Charleston in the middle of the 

 last century, was the only correspondent of Linnasus who 

 resided anywhere near the locality where it is now known; 

 and there is nothing to show that the specimens were sent 

 by him. It is not altogether improbable, although rather un- 

 likely, that the plant which has been called CratiCgus arbor- 

 escens, but to which I propose to restore in the Silva the Lin- 

 naean name, may extend as far north as the coast-region of 

 Virginia, and that it was really from Virginia that the speci- 

 mens upon which Linnceus founded the species were sent. 



127. Crat,«:gus coccinea, L. — The Scarlet Thorn is the 

 most variable, within certain limits, and the most widely- 

 distributed of the North American species. Two or three 

 extreme forms appear at first sight to represent as many 

 different species ; but these pass, however, one into the 

 other, and it is not always easy to distinguish them. 

 Certain characters, however, are constant ; and the brown 

 bark of the young branches, the long, stout, and usually 

 abundant chestnut-brown spines, the prominent glands on 

 the serratures of the stipules and leaves, on the peduncles 

 and acuminate calyx-lobes, and the bright scarlet fruit, al- 

 ways pendulous at maturity, are common to all the forms, 

 and serve to distinguish Crakegus coccinea from C. lomentosa 

 with which it has often been confounded. The stipules are 



