36 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 204. 



landscape is expressed. A branch of a Pine-tree is used, and 

 between the principal and secondary lines of the composition 

 a special branch is introduced, fancifully called the moon- 

 shadow branch ; a gap is also formed between the foliage, 

 bounded by the special branch called the dividing-branch. 

 In the composition the idea is to suggest both the opening 

 through which the moon can be partially observed, and the 

 dark branch v\'hich appears to cross its surface. To fully ap- 

 preciate the analogy one must be familiar with the scenery of 

 Japan, and have seen the irregular Pine-trees standing out 

 against the starry heavens." 



The concluding portion of Mr. Conder's book is filled with 

 practical examples. Many plates illustrate arrangements of 

 more or less complexity, and each is carefully explained and 

 the reason of its beauty pointed out. As we look through 

 these pictures we are more and more impressed with the fact 

 that, to a Japanese, our own methods of flower-arrangement 

 must indeed seem crude, barbarous and confused. It is im- 

 possible to imagine western people having the patience to 

 develop an art of flower-arrangement so elaborate and sug- 

 gestive as that of the Japanese ; nor is our mental temper 

 such that we could ever care, as they do, for recondite, philo- 

 sophical, historical rules and sentimental meanings to be ex- 

 pressed by flower-compositions. Nevertheless, the artistic 

 aim of the Japanese artist is never subordinated to any other, 

 and a very keen feeling for beauty really underlies most of the 

 distinctions which he explains in ways which to us seem fan- 

 cifully intellectual rather than sesthetic. It is a pity, therefore, 

 that Mr. Conder's book should be so large and costly that we 

 cannot expect it to have much direct influence upon public 

 tastes in this country and in England. But many of its lessons 

 will certainly be popularized in the pages of horticultural 

 papers. We wish that his illustrations might be largely re- 

 produced, for, of course, pictures are needed to point the 

 meaning of his words ; but, unfortunately, his title-page bears 

 the legend " All rights reserved," which, we presume, makes 

 it impossible to copy his cuts without special permission. 



There has here been no attempt, we repeat, really to review 

 his book, which is an admirable monument to his own indus- 

 try and intelligence, as well as to the artistic qualities of the 

 Japanese. The value of such a work depends upon each of 

 the details it explains and upon their full and orderly exposi- 

 tion. All we have attempted to do is to show by a few quota- 

 tions how interesting and novel it is, and to recommend its 

 careful perusal by any one vifho may be fortunate enough to 

 find a copy at hand. 



Notes. 



We learn from a Washington dispatch that President Harri- 

 son has issued a proclamation reserving from entry the Pecos 

 River tract, in New Mexico, which is alluded to in another 

 page of this issue. 



In Japan the Paeony is cultivated in long sheltered beds, 

 generally lying beneath one of the chief rooms in the house, 

 from which its splendid blossoms can be surveyed. It is the 

 favorite flower of the upper classes, and, being cultivated to 

 produce enormous flowers, often bears blossoms nine inches 

 or more in diameter. 



When too little water is given to house-plants the wilted and 

 drooping leaves soon indicate what the trouble is, and it is 

 very easy to apply the remedybefore any serious injin-yisdone. 

 When too much water is given, however, the injury is not dis- 

 covered until perhaps the leaves turn yellow and begin to fall, 

 and it is then sometimes too late to repair the damage. This 

 means that it is easier to injure house-plants beyond remedy 

 by giving too much water than by giving too little. 



Monsieur Henry L^vSquede Vilmorin has been elected First 

 Vice-President of La SocitSt^ Nationale d'Horticulturede France 

 in place of the late Auguste Hardy. This is the most important 

 horticultural office in France, as the President of the society, 

 usually some distinguished statesman, is merely a figure- 

 head, the real administration of the affairs of the society de- 

 volving on the First Vice-President. The society is to be con- 

 gratulated in being able to place itself under the direction of 

 one of the best-equipped and most famous horticulturists of 

 his day, and the worthy representative of a family which has 

 been distinguished for generations for its scientific attain- 

 ments, its commercial enterprise and integrity, and its zeal in 

 worthy effort to ameliorate every rural art and science. 



According to Professor Massey the central Oak-belt of North 

 Carolina is peculiarly the home of the Peach, just as the moun- 

 tain region is of the Apple. This is especially true of the up- 



land sandy ridges which rise some five hundred or six hundred 

 feet above the sea, and which, while in the geographical limits 

 of the Oak-belt, are really Pine-lands. Professor Emery, of the 

 North Carolina Experiment Station, while rambling last year 

 through the forest near a health-resort known as Southern 

 Pines, came across what had once been a Peach-orchard, but 

 which had grown up with Pines twenty or thirty years old. 

 Yet here among these conifers were a number of the old 

 Peach-trees, with trunks measuring nearly a foot in diameter 

 and full of fruit. Most of the trees had been blown over, but 

 even these had put out new heads, which were full of fruit. 

 In Davis County, between the forks of the Yadkin River, wild 

 Peach-trees are abundant along the fence-rows and in old 

 sedge-fields, and these bear large crops with no cultivation 

 or care. 



In an article on Christmas supplies in the Journal of Horti- 

 culture, London, it is said that one of the most striking features 

 in the markets is afforded by the numerous auction sales of 

 imported fruit, and is a matter of surprise how such quantities | i 

 can be disposed of, and what becomes of home-grown fruits, jf' 

 Thousands of baskets of American apples have been received 

 and sold within the past few days, bright, even, well-selected 

 and well-packed fruits, which would command purchasers i. 

 anywhere, the Newtown Pippins and Baldwins being the fa- l{ 

 vorites. Side by side with tlie American apples were bushels 

 of English apples, and the contrast was almost painful. These 

 last were irregular, unselected fruits, seemingly shot into bas- 

 kets without heed and care, handsomefruits and rubbish inter- 

 mingled, with the result of a very low average. This is one 

 great defect of English growers, and however the cultivation 

 of fruit may be improved, it will never produce the proper re- 

 sults until the cognate matters of packing and displaying 

 receive due attention. 



Mr. Romeyn S. Hough writes us that in a copy of 

 Evelyn's Silva, which bears the date of 1664, is a marginal 

 note which was penned perhaps a century ago by some former 

 owner of the book whose name is lost. As it relates to 

 American trees and forcibly illustrates the value of tree-plant- 

 ing, it will doubtless interest our readers : "The false Acacia 

 in North America (RobiniaPseudo Acacia, Linn.), vid. Monthly 

 Review for April, 1788, Memoirs of Agriculture published by 

 the Royal Society of Agriculture at Paris ; Memoir 9, by Mon- 

 sieur Saint Jean de Creve Coeur. A farmer on Long Island 

 planted in the year of his marriage an old worn-out field of 

 fourteen acres with this Acacia, resolving not to touch it till 

 his first child should be of age to marry. His eldest son, when 

 twenty-two years old, anxious to settle by himself, applied for 

 assistance to his father, who then sold out of this wood (to a 

 ship-master) timber to the value of 6,250 French livres, about 

 ^260 sterling, which he gave to his son to purchase a planta- 

 tion in the County of Lancaster. Three years afterward he 

 sold as much as brought the same sum, with which he appor- 

 tioned a daughter. In fine, without any other resources than 

 the sale of wood from these fourteen acres, planted in theyertr 

 of his marriage, he has provided for all his family, and the 

 wood continues to be still equally productive." 



The January number of the Anierican Agriculturist cele- 

 brates the semi-centennial anniversary of its establishment bv 

 a series of articles on the great progress which has been made 

 during the last fifty years in agricultural science and practice 

 in America. Interesting articles for this number have been 

 prepared by experts to show the improvement in agricultural 

 machinery and methods of cultivation, in the breeds of do- 

 mestic animals and poultry and in the different varieties of 

 grains, fruits, vegetables and flowering-plants. There are arti- 

 cles, too, on such comparatively new industries as the export 

 trade in beef, the production of beet-sugar and the growing of 

 vegetables under glass. Dr. Riley writes of the important 

 position which applied entomology now holds in agricultural 

 practice ; Dr. Halstead of the new methods of treating fungous 

 diseases of plants, and Dr. Jenkins of fertilizers and their in- 

 creased use, while Mr. Berckmans discusses the development 

 of pomology, and Mr. EUwanger records the growth of the 

 nursery industry. Altogether the present condition of Ameri- 

 can agriculture, when compared with what it was fifty years 

 ago, warrants Mr. C. Wood Davis' prophecy of a brilliant fu- 

 ture. This issue of the Agriculturist also contains portraits 

 of all its editors, beginning with Mr. A. B. Allen, who still lives 

 at the age of ninety years, and was able to contribute an article 

 to the jubilee number of the magazine which he founded 

 in 1842. Our readers will unite with us in wishing a long 

 continuance of prosperous life to the magazine under the 

 efficient conduct of Dr. Hexamer, who now guides its policy. 



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