Septemiier 4 1889.] 



Garden and Forest. 



421 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY IJY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office : Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducted by Professor C. S. Sargent. 



ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POST OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. Y. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1889. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial: — Sprinsi; Flowerin>j Bulbs. — The Lesson of Conemaugh 421 



The Art of Gardening — An Historical Sketch. — IX. 



Mrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer. 422 



The Sugar Maple and Maple Sugar Professor .{. J. Cook. 423 



Notes upon Some North American Trees. — NWl.. Professor C. S. Sargent. 423 



Foreign Correspondence: — London Letter W. Goldring. 424 



Cultural Department : — A Few Late Pears ■ E IVilliams. ^i(> 



The Wild Garden in August Mrs. Maiy Treat. 428 



The I smenes W. E. Endicott. 428 



Lemoine s Hybrid Gladioli W. G. i,iLi) 



Perennial Coreopsis. — Lobelia splendens E. O. Orpet. 429 



Odontoglossum bchlieperiaiium. — Vanda teres John Weathers. 429 



Cokrespondence:— An Interesting Wild wood ." H. B. Ayres. 430 



Trees Which Shade Dwellings //. 430 



The Asparagus Beetle IV. K. 430 



Recent Publications 431 



Meetings of Societies :^The American Florists at Buffalo 431 



Notes 432 



Illustrations: — Cratsegus tomentosa (Fig. 126) ,.,-. 425 



Poet's Narcissus Flowering in the Grass , 427 



Spring-Flowering Bulbs. 



AT this season, when all the air is filled with the fra- 

 grance of ripening fruit, and flowers are still bloom- 

 ing in mid-summer abundance, it is difficult to recall the 

 impression made on the mind by the hardy flowers that 

 begin to appear, one after another, under the first genial 

 influences of early spring. After the long northern winter, 

 ■any evidence of renewed life is welcome, and early flowers 

 could not fail to give delight for the cheerful promise which 

 they bring, if for no other reason. But apart from this 

 appeal to the imagination, and from the fact that they have 

 few rivals, spring flowers in themselves are among the 

 most beautiful vi'hich the year has to ofter; so that every 

 one who has any appreciation of grace and delicacy in 

 form and color takes especial satisfaction in a spring- 

 garden. The testimony is universal that one who plants a 

 spring-garden provides himself and his friends with a store 

 of unfailing and ever-increasing pleasure. 



These thoughts are seasonable, for the time is at hand 

 when preparations for spring flowers must be made, if we 

 are to have them at their best. Without mentioning the 

 hundreds of other flowers that have been spoken of in these 

 columns earlier in the year as they came into bloom, we 

 wish especially to call attention to the endless variety of 

 bulbs in which the flowers for next year's bloom are 

 already stowed away. Snowdrops and Squills, Snowflakes 

 and Crocuses, Fritillaries and Erythroniums, Daffodils, 

 Jonquils, Chionodoxas, Satin Flowers and many more — 

 most of them in endless variety — should be secured early, 

 or the dealers will have nothing but refuse stock to offer. 

 It is true that most of these will bloom if not planted until 

 November, but many of them lose their vitality when kept 

 too long out of the ground. Those who wish to deal 

 directly with the great bulb-growers of Holland, or to 

 secure rare varieties from specialists, have no time to lose. 

 Careful study of the catalogues should begin at once, for 

 at least six weeks will elapse between the sending of or- 

 ders and the arrival of the bulbs. The middle of October 

 is late enough to plant any of them, and most of them 

 will become better established if planted in September. 



Even in our wild February weather the fragile Snowdrop 

 will often pierce the frozen soil and open in a sunny ex- 



posure, and, if a proper selection of bulbs is made, flowers 

 can be had in constant succession through all the spring 

 months, until the summer Irises appear. Now is the time 

 to choose a proper position for each according to its habit. 

 Most of the earlier and more delicate ones are out of place 

 in masses or formal beds. Snowdrops, for example, can 

 be snugly placed under the shelter of a wall or a boulder in 

 the rock-garden. Tall Squills like -S". campanulata are at 

 home in the grass, which may be a foot or more high 

 when they bloom. Daffodils will grace the borders of a 

 woodland path. Yellow Crocuses are beautiful on the turf, 

 as they open just as the grass is warming into tender 

 green. Gay garden Tulips and Hyacinths are quite too 

 civilized for nooks in the wild garden, but some of the spe- 

 cies of Tulips, especially those of recent introduction, are 

 not misplaced on the border of shrubberies, or in pockets 

 of the rock-garden. There is no spot in wood or meadow, 

 by the brookside or byway, among the rocks, or in a 

 trim enclosure, where some of these flowers cannot be 

 placed to advantage. 



None of these spring-flowering bulbs are more generally 

 appreciated than the almost numberless species and varie- 

 ties of the Narcissus. The single Daffodil opens early in 

 April, with the Bloodroot, and for six weeks some member 

 of the family will be in bloom.. Latest of all, and hard after 

 the beautiful N. hiflorus, comes the Poet's Narcissus, the 

 hardiest and most useful of all. No flower is more effec- 

 tive in the border, in the rock-garden, or as an edging to the 

 shrubbery. It can be naturalized even in a hay-field, and 

 it never appears more beautiful than when shining among 

 the grass, as in our illustration on page 427, which gives a 

 view on private grounds not far from Boston. The foliage 

 should remain till the bulbs have ripened well, and this is 

 true of all other bulbs ; but long before the grass is fit for the 

 scythe the tops will have died down out of the way, and 

 the bulbs will have multiplied for fresh flowers another 

 spring. The Poet's Narcissus is not particular about soil 

 or exposure, but it will multiply more rapidly in a deep, 

 rich soil, and gratefully repay kind treatment. Man}'- var- 

 ieties have been produced by crossing and selection, which 

 are interesting to those who take pleasui"e in noting minor 

 distinctions among flowers, but for general effect none of 

 them are superior to the original type, which can be 

 bought for a trifle, and a few of them planted every 

 year in vacant corners will soon furnish an abundant 

 supply. Like most species of Narcissus, they do better 

 when planted early, and then, if the soil is suitable, they only 

 need to be protected from the ravages of the lawn-mower 

 to keep on spreading and flowering year after year. No 

 one ever had too many Poet's Narcissus or other spring 

 bulbs of that adaptable kind which will brighten up out-of- 

 the-way nooks in unkept parts of the garden, and no one 

 ever enjoyed such flowers in full measure until he has seen 

 them scattered along the wayside or among the grass, or 

 grouped naturally in a wood border. 



In an article on "The Lesson of Conemaugh," in the 

 North American Review for August, Major J. W. Powell, 

 Director of the United States Geological Survey, says that 

 "wherever the chief precipitation is snow, forests are a 

 disadvantage if the waters are needed in the valleys below 

 for irrigation, for the forests keep the snow distributed 

 over broad areas of ground and expose it to the winds on 

 their trunks, branches and leaves, so that altogether the 

 mountain evaporation is enormously increased as com- 

 pared with the evaporation from snow-drifts and ice-fields." 

 If there have been measurements which show that forests 

 enormously increase evaporation, the facts would have a 

 scientific interest for students of forestry, and we should be 

 glad to see a full report of them. But whatever the loss of 

 water from such evaporations may be, the extinction of 

 mountain-forests usually involves the destruction of the 

 mountains themselves, and of the streams which flow from 

 them. If the forests are destroyed there will soon be no 

 possibility of controlling and utilizing the water from the 



