November 6, 1889.] 



Garden and Forest. 



529 



GARDEN AND FOREST, 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office : Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducted by Professor C. S. Sakgbnt. 



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



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1889. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Articles :— The Utility of What Makes Life Iiilerestiiig;.— The For- 

 ests of Southern New Mexico 529 



Landscape-Gardening in Persia 5. G. ]V. Benjamin. 530 



Viburnum lantanoides. (With Figure.) CSS. 531 



Holiday Notes in Southern France and Northern Italy. — IV., 



George Nicholson. 532 

 New or Little Known Plants; — Gymnogramme schizophylia, 



(With illustration.) 532 



Foreign Correspondence : — London Letter W. Watsoji. 533 



Cultural Department : — Notes in a Northern Garden T. H. Hoskins, M.D. 534 



The Grape-fruit in Florida Geo. E. ]VahIi. 536 



Orchid Notes F. Coldring. 536 



Cory dalis lutea C. 536 



Dicentra eximia E. O. Orpet. 537 



The Forest : — Some Japanese Trees in New England C. S. S. 537 



Correspondence: — Variegated Wild Plants E. Lewis Siurtevajit, M.D. 539 



Data Concerning the Growth cf Native Trees Charles C. Abbott, M.D. 539 



Chrysanthemums at the United States Nurseries G. 539 



Notes 54° 



Illustrations : — Gymnogramme schizophylla. (Fig. 140) 533 



Viburnum lantanoides. (Fig. 141.) 535 



The Utility of What Makes Life Interesting. 



FOOD, clothing and shelter are the primal, universal 

 wants; but when these are supplied, new needs arise, 

 the wish for increasing comfort and security, and then the 

 desire to make life interesting, so that it may be soinething 

 more than mere existence. The means to this end are as 

 varied as the special qualities and dispositions of individual 

 men, but, however it may reveal itself, this hunger for 

 soinething beyond the means of physical subsistence is an 

 ideal element in our nature. It is the origin of poetry and 

 romance, and of all art. It is the source of progress and 

 civilization, and is, indeed, the distinguishing endowment 

 and crown of humanity. It is not enough for men to have 

 food, clothing and shelter in amplest supply. The physical 

 life itself is not prosperous or secure when the mind 

 is starved and dwarfed. Pleasant thought is a vital force. 

 Interesting mental employment promotes health and lon- 

 gevity, and is a necessity for all. 



The means, conditions and occupations which make life 

 interesting for some persons have no such value or result 

 for others. The sustaining pleasures of one man would be 

 a burden and weariness to another. Growth carries the 

 same individual beyond the earlier ideal satisfactions, and 

 he discerns more truly what is normal, sane and healthful. 

 A cultivated and developed taste rejects what was once 

 highly esteemed. In an advanced state of society every 

 person would be free to employ his means and opportuni- 

 ties for the satisfaction of his own ideal needs — to pursue 

 the objects which would make life most interesting to him, 

 if he did not trespass upon the rights of others. At the 

 same time every individual would be influenced and aided 

 by the general taste, judgment and culture of the commu- 

 nity about him. 



The growing interest in out-of-door life, and in means of 

 recreation that can be enjoyed in the open air, is one of 

 the most encouraging tendencies of the time. Gardening 

 and the care of flowers and trees are becoming more and 

 more attractive to thoughtful and cultivated people every- 

 where. These are sane and wholesome occupations, and 

 they are coming to be depended upon for relief from weari- 

 ness and "nervous prostration," as it is found that pleasant 



activity in the open air is often a more potent restorative 

 than medicine. The primary benefit comes, of course, 

 from our breathing purer air, and more of it, when out-of- 

 doors; but every one needs a more inspiring reason for 

 going out than the bare and depressing thought of the need 

 of improvement to health. It is much better to think about 

 our flowers or shrubbery, or to be interested in plans for 

 the care of a garden or door-yard, than to think of our- 

 selves in any more direct way. In all such activities im- 

 mediate utility is associated with the more ideal aims. 



The best garden or farm is partly a work of art. Its 

 order and beauty add to the interest of life for its possessor, 

 especially if he cultivates it with his own hands and brain. 

 A day laborer with a garden, or a few square yards of 

 ground about his door, has an artist's opportunities in the 

 application of his taste to the capabilities of the area which 

 he plants and shapes. He may have the delight of creating 

 something beautiful and interesting which did not exist be- 

 fore. It is a serene happiness to think out plans for doing the 

 best that can be done with even the smallest piece of 

 ground on which anything can be made to grow. He 

 who has room for trees has it in his power to make enduring 

 changes in the landscape, and the care of even a few trees 

 will supply much of interest from the time they are planted 

 till their protector can walk or rest at will under their 

 shade. One becomes attached to them as to children and 

 friends, and they respond in their way. The watch against 

 their many foes often involves unpoetical activities ; but 

 struggle is the condition of all animate being, and life 

 without it, if it were possible, would not be interesting. 



The defense of trees against their insect enemies intro- 

 duces us to one of the most interesting provinces of the 

 out-of-door w^orld, the life of birds and their services to 

 man. In the order of animal existence on our planet they 

 are the natural instrument for keeping insect life down to 

 its normal level and proportion. But we have repressed the 

 bird population in this country to such an extent that we 

 have produced an enormous over-development of insect life, 

 so that the doininion is given over to them, and they have 

 become an all-pervading curse, like that of the frogs in 

 Egypt when they covered the land, entered the houses and 

 climbed into the very bread-bowls. Learned men write 

 books and governments make large appropriations to help 

 farmers, orchard-growers and vine-growers to defend their 

 crops against injurious insects, but if we were civilized 

 enough to protect our friends and allies instead of cherish- 

 ing our enemies, the birds would soon dispose of most 

 of these pests. 



It is often observed that birds are more particular about 

 their food than formerly, and that inany of the worst in- 

 sects are not eaten by them. But that is because their sup- 

 ply of food is so abundant that they can afford to be dainty 

 and to eat only what they like best. It is much the same 

 as if a banquet for a thousand men were served every day 

 for half a dozen. They could taste here and there, and 

 w^ould make little impression on the whole supply. It is 

 so with the birds because they are so few, but if they were 

 protected till the bird population began to prgss upon their 

 means of subsistence, they would not be so fastidious, and 

 would be glad to get any kind of bug or worm, and w^ould 

 snap up every one that showed his head. 



Besides their utility as insect destroyers, birds are among 

 the most interesting and companionable of all living crea- 

 tures. Few people in this country have any intimate ac- 

 quaintance with birds and their ways, but those who have 

 studied them in close and pleasant relations know that they 

 have a great deal of individual character and a wonderful 

 and most interesting kind of intelligence. Their music, too, 

 often peculiarly sweet and fascinating, with a mysterious 

 and indefinable quality — a kind of divine suggestivcness — 

 appeals strongly to the higher and gentler elements of our 

 nature. But few persons now hear this music, because the 

 birds that remain are so hunted, ter.rified and tormented 

 that they rarely feel like singing. If the children and 

 young people of the country were instructed in their homes, 



