December 



1895.] 



Garden and Forest. 



491 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED 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. V. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1895. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Articles — School-grounds 491 



The Shrubbery in December 402 



The Heaths among the Pines in Early Winter Mrs. Mary Treat, t^i^i 



Notes on the Flora of a Prairie State Thomas A. IVjlliams. 493 



The Papaw, Asimina triloba. (With figure.) L. C. Carbett. 494 



New or Little-known Plants : — Philadelphus Falconeri. (With figure.). C 5. .S. 494 

 Crataegus Carrier! 495 



P1.ANT Notes 49:; 



Cultural Department: — Iirigation in New England y. H. Hale. 496 



Grapes under Glass M'Uliain Scott. 496 



Notes from the Missouri Botanical Garden Lntit Mische. 497 



Spraying by Steam-power Professor IV. E.Brittou. 497 



Dipladenia Boliviensis N. J. R. 49S 



Arbutus Unedo C. W. O. 498 



Correspondence ; — Does Size Aifect the Flavor and Color of Fruits ? 



G. Harold Po^oell. 49S 



Notes from Brookline, Massachusetts T. D. HatfieU. 498 



Late-Flowering Golden-rods Professor T. D. A. Cockerell, 499 



Keeping Grapes through the Winter F. T. Bioletti. 499 



Recent Publications 499 



Notes 500 



Illustrations ; — The Papaw, Asimina triloba. Fig 67 495 



Philadelphus Falconeri. Fig. 68 - 497 



School-grounds. 



A VALUED correspondent writes to inquire why we 

 have not more persistently advocated the systematic 

 planting of school-grounds, both for purposes of decoration 

 and instruction. He argues with reason that the place 

 where children pass a large portion of their waking hours 

 during the formative period of their lives ought to be one 

 that will exert a refining influence, whereas ni very many 

 instances the school-house and its surroundings, both in 

 country and city, are comfortless, and even repulsive. 

 After adding that a well-selected collection of trees and 

 shrubs and herbaceous plants could be used to great advan- 

 tage in furnishing object-lessons for the study of botany 

 and for instruction in the elements of practical horticulture, 

 and even of forestry, he inquires why it would not be 

 practicable for us to publish some plans for the laying out 

 of school-grounds so as to give them an educational value 

 in this direction, besides encouraging an intelligent love of 

 what is most beautiful in nature. 



We have discussed this subject more than once, and 

 realize its importance, but we are convinced that ready- 

 made plans are rarely helpful to ordinary readers, because 

 the sketches of places usually published give altogether 

 erroneous ideas of the actual appearance of these places 

 when the plans are carried out. More than that, as we 

 have often said, each place has individual characteristics 

 of boundary and surface and outlook, and it must, there- 

 fore, be stu(5ied by itself As a rule, about the worst pos- 

 sible design for the development of the grounds about any 

 school-building is one that has been prepared originally 

 for some other place. 



Not far from the bank of a river in Pennsylvania we once 

 saw a low stone schoolhouse situated nearly in the centre 

 of a sloping lot of some five acres, about which were scat- 

 tered broad spreading Oaks far enough apart as to leave 

 sunny spaces between them, except one group of three 

 trees and a little grove at one of the upper corners. There 

 was no town in sight, and one could hardly imagine a 

 more tranquil place. Certainly it would have been an 

 offense against good taste to import some novelty out of a 



map to belittle the grandeur of the Oaks, or to add any 

 shrubs or flowers to such a picture. Even for educational 

 purposes one would regret to see the dignity of such a 

 spot marred by the intrusion of a shrub-border or a flower- 

 bed. There was an abundance of good land all about the 

 enclosure, and in this case it would have been preferable 

 to arrange for object-lessons in horticulture and botany 

 outside of this picture of peace. Too often, however, 

 the schoolhouse stands on the public highway with 

 scarcely any playground but the mud and dust of the road, 

 and no sign of a shade-tree. For such a desolate place 

 there is absolutely no excuse. Of course, there should 

 be an enclosed playground connected with every school, 

 both in the country and city. In the country, at least, it would 

 cost but a trifle to add to the playground proper a neatly 

 grassed area, with a bordering shrubbery and some well- 

 kept shade-trees. Where the playground is thus separated 

 from what may be called the garden the usefulness of the 

 latter will largely depend upon the interest taken in it by the 

 children. We have recorded instances where the pupils of 

 schools, having been invited to help in the planting and 

 care of school-grounds, came to cherish them with a real 

 affection which has survived until long after their en- 

 trance into active life. The conduct of school boys, as 

 well as of their elders, is largely controlled by traditions, 

 and it has been proved over and over again that a feeling 

 of local pride can be engendered which persists through 

 successive generations of children, and insures such a 

 regard for a place that there is little fear of any attempt at its 

 wanton defacement. If prizes were offered in every county 

 for the most tastefully planted and carefully maintained 

 school-grounds, the spirit of emulation could be effectively 

 added as another incentive to beautify and protect them. 



In crowded cities, where the pupils in every school- 

 building are counted by hundreds, it will hardly be possible, 

 as a rule, to have school-grounds sufficiently spacious to 

 furnish at once an outdoor gymnasium and a pleasure- 

 garden. There are few places so contracted, however, 

 that they will not admit of some planting along the walls, 

 where vines and flowering herbs can be made to flourish. 

 Window plants, at least, can be introduced into the school- 

 room, to cheer and brighten what too often is a bare and 

 forbidding apartment, and to furnish object-lessons for ele- 

 mentary instruction in horticulture and botany. But in 

 the country there are few places where it is not possible to 

 have a real garden, with carefully labeled plants and 

 shrubs and trees — a garden for which children can be made 

 to feel a sense of responsibility, and in which they will take 

 an active interest. If they are called to assist in caring for 

 and cultivating the plants, they will be able to gain in a 

 delightful way many lessons in cleanliness and order as 

 well as in natural science, and they will acquire the habit 

 of observing closely beauties of structure and adapta- 

 tion in every form of vegetation, a habit which will bring 

 increasing delight and refreshment to its possessors all 

 through their lives. 



The sum of the matter is that the expenditure of a few 

 dollars and a little careful thought in furnishing the 

 school-building and planting shrubs and native trees 

 about it will transform the house and grounds from an 

 appearance of discomfort and squalor to one of cheer- 

 fulness and beauty. But this planting will do more than 

 exert a softening and civilizing influence upon school chil- 

 dren. It is well known that school gardens play an 

 important part in the educational system of many coun- 

 tries, and certainly^ractical instruction in this direction is 

 needed in the United States, if it is needed anywhere. If 

 a few of our native trees and shrubs vi'ere planted in the 

 grounds of every district school, and teachers took ])ains 

 to call attention to their names and characters and modes 

 of growth, there would not be as many men and women 

 in the country as there are now who cannot distinguish 

 our commonest species of Oaks or Rhqiles or Hickories. 

 No extensive arboretum will be needed for such study. 

 With a few trees for illustration and comparison it will not 



