1 68 



Garden and Forest. 



PLUMBER 215. 



and pleasure in a particular kind of natural scenery is aug- 

 mented if he is familiar with tlie work of some great landscape- 

 painter who has interpreted that special kind. We do not now 

 refer to the actual portraiture of special scenes and sites, but 

 simply to that preference for one kind of landscape-beauty 

 which most landscape-painters exhibit. It does not matter 

 whether or no we ever look upon the actual scenes that Corot 

 portrayed, or even whether he ever exactly portrayed any 

 given spot. He illustrated and poetized a special type of land- 

 scape, and when we see this type in France, or even along our 

 American stream-courses, we understand it better because we 

 have seen it upon his canvas ; and especially if the hour is 

 morning and the time is spring — the hour and the time when 

 Corot best loved to paint. It is the same with Rousseau and 

 the great masses of brown-red foliage which he loved to de- 

 pict, and with Diaz and his dusky green woodland glades ; and 

 the same with Ruysdael and the wide gray sandy stretches of 

 Holland, and with Cuyp and his fertile valleys, herds of placid 

 cattle and golden sunlight. And as it is with these painters of 

 landscape, so it is with the designers of ornament. If we know 

 their work, we see more in the natural forms they adapted 

 than we ever did before, and appreciate them more thoroughly. 

 Mr. Day's book, therefore, should recommend itself strongly 

 to the readers of Garden and Forest, even though they may 

 have no practical personal concern with the art it explains. 



Notes. 



The last line of the article on Chrysanthemum Blight, which 

 appeared in our last issue (page 153), should read "one gill" in- 

 stead of " one pint." Professor Beach writes that his attention 

 was directed to the error by Mr. John N. May, of Summit, New 

 Jersey. The correction is important, since a solution as 

 strong as that originally given would probably injure the 

 plants. 



We have received from Rea Brothers, Norwood, Massa- 

 chusetts, flowers of Primula Sieboldi and half a dozen varie- 

 ties sufficiently distinct to be worthy of separate names. These 

 flowers, which came in excellent condition, were grown in a 

 cold frame, but they are perfectly hardy in sheltered situa- 

 tions, and they make a good addition to the flowers which 

 bloom in April and May. 



Last week a public meeting was held in Vineland, New Jersey, 

 at which the fruit-growers of that region met with the mer- 

 chants of Brooklyn, New York, Philadelphia, Trenton, Paterson 

 and other cities to discuss tlie practicability of sending berries 

 lo market in packages which were not returnable. A good deal 

 of money is now invested in these packages, so that this change 

 cannot be made at once, but it looks as if the current of busi- 

 ness sentiment is in that direction, and that the reform will 

 come in a year or two. 



Mr. John Thorpe is reported in the American Florist as 

 having recently said that the project of an International Chrys- 

 anthemum Show was under consideration by a committee of 

 the Local Directory of the World's Fair. A technical objec- 

 tion had been raised on account of a clause in the charter 

 which might be construed so as to prevent the taking of an 

 admission fee for entrance to the ground before the opening 

 of the fair, but he believed that this point could be adjusted 

 and that the exhibition would be held and be worthy of the 

 great occasion. 



Complaint is often made of Foxgloves and some other her- 

 baceous plants which are sometimes sold as perennials, that 

 they die away after flowering and are really biennial plants. 

 Meehans' Monthly calls attention to the fact that they can be 

 made true perennials if they are prevented from going to seed. 

 It is the production of seed which exhausts the vital powers of 

 the plant. If the stalks of Foxgloves and other plants are only 

 cut off as soon as the flowers fade and before the seeds are 

 formed, there will be no difficulty in having them live for a 

 number of years. Those who wish to increase perennial 

 plants rapidly do not let them flower at all. Where seed is 

 needed, one or more plants can be allowed to produce and 

 ripen it. 



The question of our common roads has become of such 

 general interest that it is no surprise to find it made the sub- 

 ject of the leading article in TJie Century magazine for this 

 month. The letter-press of this article is good, but it is the 

 illustrations which make it particularly valuable. No one can 

 see the pictures of wheels blocked and horses and human 

 beings struggling through mud knee-deep without being re- 

 minded of what is going on over a large portion of the north- 

 ern states at this very hour. The waste of temper, vital 



energy and time due every year to the bad roads of the United 

 States, when taken in the aggregate, is a tax which nothing but 

 a young and prosperous country could endure. No one can 

 look at these pictures without feeling that delay in mending 

 our ways is little less than criminal. 



Much sound advice is condensed into a paragraph in the 

 last Country Gentleman, which is written for farmers who 

 seem to feel that a great deal of ground is needed for a fruit- 

 garden, when in reality a small lot reserved for this purpose and 

 properly cared for will yield much more than the ordinary home 

 garden affords. Here is the advice : " Set off a piece of ground 

 three rods wide and seven rods long, or a little more than one- 

 twentieth of an acre. Lay it out in straight lines running 

 lengthwise, so that all may be cultivated with a horse, and 

 leave a space ten feet wide at each end for the horse to turn 

 on ; then plant three rows with Strawberries, one with Fay's 

 Currants, one with Raspberries, one with Dwarf Pears and the 

 rest with Grapes. With horse cultivation one hour's labor a 

 week will keep the ground clean and mellow and will give a 

 delicious supply of fresh fruit through the greater part of the 

 season." 



According to the act for establishing a botanical garden in 

 this city, which was passed about a year ago, it was made nec- 

 essary that $250,000 should be raised by the incorporators be- 

 fore they could secure $500,000 in bonds from the city and the 

 use of the 250 acres in Bronx Park. Mr. J. Pierrepont Morgan 

 and four associates were therefore entrusted with the task of 

 soliciting subscriptions, and Mr. Morgan's plan was to obtain 

 ten subscriptions of $25,000 each. It is stated in the daily 

 papers that he has already secured eight of these, and there 

 will probably be no difficulty in raising the whole amount. 

 Those who know what an establishment of this kind will cost 

 will be pleased to learn that the subscription is not to stop here, 

 but that many other persons who have expressed a willingness 

 to pay $10,000 and smaller sums will be permitted to con- 

 tribute, so as to raise at least $250,000 more, making a clean 

 million dollars to begin with. 



It is incorrect, according to the recent authority on the sub- 

 ject, to speak of the Chrysanthemum as the national flower of 

 Japan, which rank really belongs to the Cherry-blossom. The 

 mistake is probably owing to the fact tliat the Chrysanthemum 

 is used as one of the crests of the imperial house, and has 

 been highly honored by the court since at least as early as the 

 ninth century, when garden parties were held in the palace for 

 the purpose of celebrating its blossoming time, as in modern 

 days yearly Chrysanthemum shows are held in the imperial 

 gardens. " The ancient celebrations," says the writer from 

 whom we quote, " seein to have partaken of a truly pastoral 

 character, the courtiers wearing the plucked blossoms in their 

 hair, drinking wine and composing verses upon the beauties 

 of the flowers. The modern Chrysanthemum displays in the 

 palace gardens are more like our own flower-shows in the 

 social conventionality of their ari-angement ; but the numerous 

 variety of every imaginable color and profusion of shape, 

 arranged in long, open, rustic sheds, forms a brilliant and im- 

 posing scene hardly rivaled by any flower-show in the world." 



In the last annual report of the Botanical Gardens at George- 

 town, Demerara, it is said that bananas hold a very inferior 

 place in the domestic economy and estimation of the general 

 public as compared with plantains. They are not, as plantains 

 are, regarded as an essential article of food, nor are they par- 

 ticularly sought for by the working classes when they come in 

 their way. The preference of the inhabitants of temperate 

 countries for the banana as against the plantain is due to the 

 fact that as it is consumed raw, only a moment is required to 

 become acquainted with and appreciate its merits. On the 

 other hand, a long time and steady acquaintance is required 

 before the plantain is properly appreciated. The most abun- 

 dant bananas in the markets of Georgetown are the Dwarf or 

 Chinese kind, and next to that the large and small Fig bananas. 

 The large Indian banana differs from all others in its size, wide 

 angles and softer texture, and is the best of all for cooking 

 purposes, although, as has been said, bananas are almost ex- 

 clusively used raw. They may, however, be preserved with 

 sugar in various forms, or turned into jam or dried and packed 

 like figs. These methods of preservation have all been tried 

 on a small scale in various parts of the West Indies, but mostly 

 in an amateur way. But no one seems to have thought it 

 worth while to make the necessary outlay of money and time 

 in order to place this fruit cheaply in the markets of temperate 

 countries as other preserved fruits are. Samples never make 

 a market for any commodity. Cheap and abundant supply is 

 necessary to create a permanent demand. 



