March 23, 1892.] 



Garden and Forest. 



133 



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, MARCH 23, 1892. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Articles :— Some Uses of Flowers 133 



Poe's Cottage at Fordham 134 



The Story of a Suburban Place. — f Sylvester Baxter. 134 



Notes of a Summer Journey in Europe.— X J. G. yack. 135 



Plant Notes :— Erica hyemalis. (Witli figure.) W. Watson. 136 



New or Little-known Plants :— Clematis brevicaudata. (With figure.).. C. 5. S. 138 

 Cultural Department : — Should Farmers raise their own Vegetable Seeds ? 



Professor George C. Butz. 139 



The Greenhouse Under Trial % N. Gerard. 140 



The Flower-garden E. O. Orpet. 141 



Petunia Blignt Professor Byron D. Halsted. 141 



Success with Lilies W. F. B. 141 



Correspondence :— Spring's Onset J. E. Learned. 141 



A Freak of a New England Orchid J. T. 142 



Periodical Literature 142 



Recent Publications 142 



Notes 143 



Illustrations :— Erica hyemalis. Fig. 21 137 



Clematis brevicaudata, Fig. 22 139 



Some Uses -of Flowers. 



AN article on this subject by the learned agriculturist, 

 Pierre Joigneaux, originally published in "d^^ Journal 

 de la Ferine, founded by him, and since his death repro- 

 duced in the Revue Horticole, has suggested some thoughts 

 about the uses of flowers and the part which they play in 

 our lives. Monsieur Joigneaux claims that the love of them 

 is one of the important differences between man and the 

 brute, but, unfortunately, modern science reveals that, after 

 all, the primary cause of the color and fragrance in flow- 

 ers was to make them attractive to birds and insects ; and 

 as the Poppy-bee and Australian bower-bird manifest quite 

 as keen an appreciation as we do of their decorative value, 

 the Frenchman's theory has no more substantial basis than 

 the vainglorious assumption that the universe was made 

 for man, and that he is superior at all points to other 

 created things. But admitting all this, no sufficient reason 

 why we should disparage or undervalue any pleasure is to 

 be found in the fact that our lowly relatives, in their hum- 

 bler way, can enjoy it, too. 



It is an open question if the delight of the eye can ever 

 be reckoned among the intellectual sensations, but whether 

 the power to appreciate beauty is classed among our higher 

 or lower faculties, the truth remains that flowers are rel- 

 ished and employed by man for ornament, even in his sav- 

 age state, and this taste is not outgrown, but rather 

 strengthened, as he advances in refinement, until in the 

 great cycle of development the most highly organized civil- 

 ization again touches the barbarian plane, in its love for 

 sensuous enjoyment. The gratification of the human eye 

 and nose being presumably more elevated than the joy of 

 the donkey in his Thistle, or the humming-bird in its 

 Bignonia, we are apt to plume ourselves upon this taste for 

 flowers as an evidence of inward refinement, which it may 

 or may not be, according to circumstances. A Nero may 

 delight in his crown of Roses, while a Tarquin prefers to 

 whip off the heads of his Poppies in a bloody dream of 



tyranny, without leaving much to choose between them in 

 ethical quaUty. But, however this may be, the love of 

 flowers has a charming sentiment about it which gives it a 

 high rank among the material sources of satisfaction ; and 

 the tendency of their presence to brighten and cheer lives 

 otherwise devoid of color and fragrance touches our sym- 

 patliies and gives food for the imagination. Thus the row 

 of flower-pots in a cottage-window appeals to us more than 

 the stately conservatories of a rich man's dwelling ; the 

 child's garland of daisies more than the belle's bouquet ; 

 the lihes on a coffin more than the roses that surround the 

 bride ; yet all are appropriate and precious, and cannot 

 well be spared. 



But, apart from what might be considered mere senti- 

 ment, flowers have played a considerable part in the his- 

 tory of civilization. They have given standards both of 

 color and form that have had from the beginning a pro- 

 found influence upon the plastic arts. They were probably 

 the earliest suggestion of color toman, and from their roots, 

 as a natural source, were distilled the earliest dyes. The 

 Egyptian column is a reproduction of the stem and blossom 

 of the Lotus-flower, at first realistic in shape and hue, and 

 later conventionalized into that noble and beautiful form 

 which still exists in the capitals of their majestic temples. 

 The volutes of the Greek Ionic order, the Acanthus-leaf of 

 the Corinthian, were suggested by common weeds. Gothic 

 art borrowed from the garden myriads of lovely forms 

 that were carved in stone into undying wreaths of beauty. 

 Even the Hebrew, so reticent in natural form, was permit- 

 ted to use the Pomegranate as a design upon the garment 

 of the high-priest. The goldsmith has fashioned flowers 

 in gold and silver, the lapidary has turned jewels into their 

 likeness, the smith has reproduced them in miracles of 

 wrought iron, the sculptor has modeled them upon his 

 pedestals and adorned his statues with their semblance, 

 the painter has borrowed from them his choicest decora- 

 tions. To the poet they have been an unfaiUng spring of 

 suggestion, whether as symbols or as a theme for dainty 

 verse ; the vi'isest and the gayest of the bards having alike 

 immortalized them in powerful rhyme. Wherever art ex- 

 ists, whether of form or thought, flowers have been a potent 

 spell to conjure with. 



Thus from the earliest ages the life of man has been en- 

 wreathed with their fair forms, crowning him at banquets, 

 smiling at him from his walls, twining around the col- 

 umns and altars of his temples. They have expressed 

 his love, his joy, his worship, his regret, his poignant an- 

 guish, in reality and symbol. The Greek hung a wreath 

 upon his mistress's door ; he wreathed the wine-cup with 

 Roses, the victor with Laurel, the poet with the Bay, the guest 

 with garlands ; he crowned sleep with Asphodel, and 

 death with Amaranth. This universal use of flowers al- 

 most seems to justify the belief that a love for them is one 

 of the original passions of the human soul. No one who 

 gives a handful of wild blossoms to a street child, whose 

 life has been passed on a desert of stone, can fail to note 

 how eagerly they are taken, and how tenderly, almost rev- 

 erently, they are treated. Do the flowers satisfy a genuine 

 hunger of the heart, or is this one manifestation of that 

 larger affection, that feeling of kinship with all living 

 things, which, in its various developments, we call the love 

 of Nature .' 



Perhaps, however, the kindest office of flowers to man 

 has been to inspire him with a love of gardening, a human- 

 izing pursuit wherein their pleasant companionship affords 

 unwearied delight. Here is a homely pleasure for all classes 

 of people, from the road-side cottager, with his handful of 

 Pinks and Roses, to the grower of all rare and splendid 

 exotics. Here is a pursuit which beguiles the young into 

 study and the old into congenial labor; which offers pro- 

 found problems to the wise and simple pleasures to the 

 unlearned ; a resource which never fails ; a delight which 

 never stagnates into monotony, but leads on to new and 

 ever-expanding fields as the seasons change and the years 

 grow. 



