JaNE 19, 1895.] 



Garden and Forest. 



241 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



rUHLISHED WEEKLY BY 



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, JUNE 19, 1895. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Article :— Plans for Home Grounds 241 



Are Forest Fires a Necessary Evil? B. £. FertKnv. 242 



Garden Herbariums Professor F, W. Card. 242 



Hybrid Birches. (With figure.) % G. Jack. 243 



Entomological : — New Facts about Scale Insects. — I. 



Professor T. D, A. Cockerell. 244 



Plant Notes : — Viburnum cassinoides 244 



Cultural Department:— The Russian Tree Fruits in America. — III. 



T. H. Hoskhis. M.D. 246 



Irises y. N. Gerard. 246 



Notes on Ciirysanthemums T. D. Hatfield, 247 



Glo.xinias G. IV. O. 247 



Correspondence: — Peach-growing in Georgia Z. y. Vance. 24S 



Western New Yorlt Notes Professor L. H. Bailey. 24S 



Poison Ivy B, L. Putnam. 249 



Nymphiea Laydeckeri rosea R. H. Faiince, M.D. 249 



For tlie Rock-garden Danske Dandridge. 249 



R ECENT Publications 249 



Notes 249 



Illustration : — Betula pumita X lenta, Fig. 36 245 



Plans for Home Grounds. 



A CORRESPONDENT writes to say that he has a piece 

 of land nearly six acres in extent and approxi- 

 mately in the form of a square. A river flows along- one 

 of its boundary lines and from this the land rises in a gen- 

 tle slope throughout. He wishes us to indicate what point 

 on this lot we consider the most desirable location for a 

 dwelling-house, and requests us to furnish him with plans 

 for his grounds, or refer him to some book of plans from 

 which he can select a suitable one. 



The fact that the writer imagines that he has given suffi- 

 cient data for a satisfactory plan for his grounds, and his 

 belief that he can find a ready-made plan to suit them, 

 shows that he has not given much thought to matters of 

 this sort. His case, however, is more hopeful than that of 

 many of his countrymen. The average American citizen 

 would probably wallv about his land and decide on the loca- 

 tion of his future dwelling without any serious study as to 

 how his house, with the other necessary buildings, the 

 stable-yard, the carriage approach and other foundation 

 features of the scheme could be most conveniently arranged, 

 while the thought of preserving the natural beauties of the 

 place would hardly enter his mind, and if it was suggested 

 that these beauties might be enhanced by careful treatment, 

 he would probably decide that all such consideration 

 could be postponed until his buildings were completed. 

 Of course, without knowing something more of the par- 

 ticulars of the case, it is impossible for any one to give 

 intelligent advice, but it is plain that the problem is not 

 one to be solved ofthand, and, more than that, the ap- 

 pearance of the place for all time, as well as its con- 

 venience and comfort and satisfaction, will depend more 

 upon the frame-work of the plan than upon any attention 

 to details hereafter. If a mistake is made in such con- 

 trolling elements of the design as the placing of the build- 

 ings and their approaches, no after treatment will be able to 

 correct these fundamental errors. This is the reason why 

 we have so often insisted that, if it can be commanded, 

 advice should be taken at the very outset in every case 

 from some one who is able to grasp all the possibilities of 

 the situation. 



When we insist that special study should be given to 

 each place, we do not mean that published plans are alto- 



gether useless. It is true, however, that they have small 

 value except in so far as they illustrate some special 

 problem. A plan for a small homesteatl like the one which 

 Mr. Olmsted prepared for the first volume of this paper 

 could by no possibility be adapted to any other place, but 

 in the description which accompanied it the reason for 

 every feature of the design was set forth, and in this way 

 the reader can get some idea, at least, of the kind of problems 

 which present themselves to a conscientious artist who 

 does thorough viovV and can tell why he does it. Without 

 the detailed description the plan itself is utterly mean- 

 ingless, but with it we can see how a strong-featured, con- 

 tracted and irregular piece of ground can be treated so as 

 to have a distinct charm of its own, and can be adjusted to 

 meet the wants and tastes of a particular household. To 

 the uninstructed eye any paper plan means very little, and, 

 indeed, there are many so-called landscape-gardeners who 

 are satisfied if their plan consists of easy flowing lines for 

 roads and groups of vegetation so that the map will make 

 a pretty picture. People who select paper plans are often 

 deceived because they do not reflect that when actually 

 seen with the eye from any point within or without the 

 grounds the picture is essentially different from the ground- 

 plan as it appears on paper. Again, any plan which has 

 proved good in one place would fail in another. The at- 

 tempt to reproduce a given landscape would at best be but 

 a parody or caricature of the original. All that it is possible 

 to gain from the plans of other places, and even from the 

 study of places themselves, is to get suggestions and to 

 discover principles which can be generally applied. 



One piece of advice that is always safe to give is to 

 begin with a thorough investigation of the resources of any 

 given property from a landscape point of view. It may 

 have an attractive, distinct prospect and a noble sky-line 

 in some direction. It may be possible to command a view 

 of a stretch of water which holds the light of the sky and 

 brightens every surrounding object. The property may 

 contain trees which are impressive from their size and age 

 and dignity of aspect. There will always be something in 

 the contour of the land itself, in the vegetation that it con- 

 tains, or in the outlook into the territory beyond its bounda- 

 ries, which will furnish a motive for the intelligent treat- 

 ment of a place. With such a reasonable end in view the 

 designer will pursue his purpose thoughtfully, and will 

 escape the dangers of those who only have a vague and 

 misty notion that they want to make a pretty picture. Of 

 course, this leading motive will vary in every instance. 

 One who is developing a place on the banks of a Florida 

 river would hardly be successful if he were controlled 

 by the same ideas as if he were planning a home- 

 stead in a mountain glen and amid the grandeur of moun- 

 tain scenery. But, in either case, the effort would be to 

 discover and unfold the charm which is peculiar to the spot — 

 that is, to develop its native beauty rather than to trick it 

 out with some imported ornament. 



We do not mean that this principle is the only one to be 

 considered, nor do we hold that home grounds will be 

 always satisfactory provided they are saved from wearing 

 a foreign and incongruous look amid their natural sur- 

 roundings. Nor is it to be inferred that it is an easy achieve- 

 ment to preserve and enhance the original beauties of any 

 place after making all the constructions that are necessary 

 for the health and convenience and varied tastes of a civil- 

 ized family. No one but a genuine artist can discern the 

 latent and possible beauties of any piece of ground, and no 

 one but a constructive artist in the best sense of the word 

 can adjust a place to the practical necessities of every-day 

 life, and yet by turning difficulties into opportunities can 

 preserve its essential and poetic charm. It comes to this at 

 last. The laymen who endeavor to develop their grounds 

 on purely natural lines, with an eye to preserving the spirit 

 and sentiment of the place, whether it be of wildwood or 

 seashore, or mountain gorge or smiling meadows and cul- 

 tivated farm land, may fail, and probably will fail, of the 

 very highest attainment. And yet so long as they treat 



