286 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 225. 



beaded-bed-post-broken-bottle style of architecture with which 

 we have recently been afflicted has given unlimited opportu- 

 nities for indulging perverted taste, and furnished an excuse 

 for the use of the most varied and inharmonious tints. In 

 truth, so far as color is concerned, there has been a veritable 

 orgy which has put to blush the chaste green and white em- 

 ployed by the more circumspect builders of the past. Instead 

 of striving for kaleidoscope effects, with our white lights and 

 white heat, we should rather seek subdued and restful colors 

 and all other tranquilizing influences to quell the feverish per- 

 turbation of our modern life. 



Since the wooden house, at best, has a thin and unsubstantial 

 appearance, it is all the more necessary to atone for these short- 

 comings by adopting such colors as suggest warmth and sta- 

 bility ; the light browns and warm shades of grays are, there- 

 fore, preferable to the glaring yellows or frigid white which, 

 during our winter months, make a house about as inviting a 

 refuge as an iceberg. One would as soon expect a cup of tea 

 or other warm civility at the hands of the woman who plays 

 the zither in the ice-cave at Grindelwald as from the inmates 

 of these chilly-looking mansions. 



It should become a recognized part of the moral code that 

 those about to paint should submit a choice of colors for the 

 approval of residents in the immediate neighborhood, for the 

 question of color is one of more importance to those who 

 dwell without than within the house. By the neglect of this 

 precaution the beauty and harmony of a whole street is often 

 spoiled by applying to one house a color which is discordant 

 with every other. If the prevailing tone is quiet and unob- 

 trusive, the introduction of bright yellow or glaring white may 

 become, by contrast, thoroughly obnoxious and irritating and 

 a cause of complaint as well founded as that evoked by any 

 other act of violence. It is said that once when Turner visited 

 a gallery of pictures where one of his own was on exhibition, 

 he found its beauties entirely obscured by the proximity of a 

 painting much stronger in tone ; he at once heightened the 

 value of his landscape by adding a bright spot of vermilion, 

 which completely annihilated everything in its immediate 

 vicinity. This high-handed measure is perpetrated daily in 

 inoffensive communities, where hanging committees are un- 

 known, and therefore without the provocation which a Turner 

 could claim. 



As a rule, Americans do not seem to be endowed with a 

 sense of color, and hitherto the public in this respect has re- 

 ceived scant education at the hands of its natural preceptors, 

 the architects. Until quite recently, as a class, they have 

 ■ lagged behind the intellectual advance of the nation, although 

 there was never so golden an opportunity for men of this pro- 

 fession as that presented by this vast unbuilt continent. It is 

 true that the building of cheap houses for the multitude is not 

 so inspiring as the construction of cathedrals, palaces and 

 town-halls ; nevertheless, the magnitude of the undertaking 

 ought in itself to have stimulated and engaged the highest 

 talent of our people. It is computed that the cost of providing 

 house-room for the increase of population alone will in 1893 

 reach the large sum of $192,000,000. 



The present architectural awakening gives assurance that 

 the millions destined for future building purposes, in the older 

 parts of the country at least, will be tolerably well spent ; but 

 there are immense tracts of land which lie open to the spoilers' 

 hand. The jig-saw lias already commenced its direful work 

 south of Mason and Dixon's line, and pea-green houses bear 

 witness to the so-called " march of progress." There is, how- 

 ever, some consolation in believing that the license which the 

 builder has hitherto allowed himself in the handling of wood 

 may in the end, when this accustomed freedom is held within 

 bounds by discipline and self-restraint, redound to his glory 

 and enable him to give breadth of treatment in his use of 

 more enduring materials. 



Cambridge, Mass. o. P. o. 



A May Outing. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — The enjoyment of the spring-time is largely a matter 

 of imagination and of anticipation to one who lives in the city, 

 and who sees the return of spring only in the budding of 

 street trees and in the grass upon the open space about some 

 of the houses, while he waits for a chance holiday for an out- 

 ing in the fields and woods. 



Holidays are all the more enjoyable on account of their rarity. 

 Of them all Decoration Day is the best, for Nature has now 

 done her decorating, and no luxuriance later in the season can 

 increase the beauty of the flower and foliage of this time. Wild 

 flowers are abundant, and even the aristocratic Orchids are 



largely represented among the native flowers that grow around 

 this Urbs in Horto. 



In a wood principally of low Scrub Oak, we found on last 

 Decoration Day a great many Lady-slippers (Cypripedium par- 

 viflorum) growing luxuriantly and in full bloom. To com- 

 pensate for carrying away the roots of some of the plants, we 

 fertilized a number of the blossoms of those we left, so as to 

 make sure of a crop of seeds for next year independent of the 

 visits of any insects. Some of the poorer kinds of Habenarias 

 were near by, and about a mile distant we found Cypripedium 

 pubescens blooming on the open road-side without any shade 

 whatever. These flowers are a brighter yellow than those of 

 C. parviflorum ; they are larger and deliciously fragrant, sug- 

 gesting the aroma of apricots. 



A small boy offered to show us where the " red ones " (C. 

 acaule) grew, and also to take us to fields of the little white- 

 flowering C. candidum, of which he had a quantity of the 

 blossoms. He also knew where the large white and pink 

 flowers of C. spectabile would be in bloom in a few weeks. 

 The little Ram's-head (C. arietinum) is sometimes found here. 

 This makes a list of six Cypripediums natives of this locality. 



Besides the Cypripediums there were blue Lupines, the 

 bright scarlet and yellow Painted Cups, the pretty little yellow 

 stars of Hypoxis erecta and the pink Phlox pilosa, of which a 

 beautiful pure white specimen was found ; many other floral 

 treasures added interest to our day's outing, all too quickly 

 passed. 



Chicago. F. J. Le Moyne. 



American Species of Ash. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — It will, perhaps, be interesting for the readers of 

 Garden and Forest to see what I consider the exact list of 

 the species of Fraxinus of the New World. It is the one which 

 I have adopted in my monograph of Fraxinus, read before the 

 Royal Botanical Society of Belgium at the meeting held on 

 May 1st. My reason for asking you to publish it in your inter- 

 esting and learned journal is, that I may make known to 

 American botanists my understanding of the American 

 species, and to obtain their criticism upon my observa- 

 tions made in the principal herbaria of Europe. My idea 

 of the limitation of the species in the genus Fraxinus has 

 compelled me to reduce considerably the number, which is 

 more than a hundred; and I have reduced those of the United 

 States to five, admitfing, however, a certain number of sub- 

 species. This conclusion, based on a profound study of the 

 fruits and leaves of all available material, will, perhaps, appear 

 reactionary to many botanists, but it is only after having seen 

 a great deal that I have arrived at my conclusions. 



I shall be very glad to arrange to exchange specimens of 

 the ligneous plants of Europe for those of North America. 

 American Species of the Genus Fraxinus. 



Wing of the Samara, not prolonged to the base. 

 I. F. Schiedeana. Schlecht et Cham. 



II. F. Americana. 



1. Sub-species: Typicum. 



i. Variety: Normale — F. Americana, L. 



1. Sub-variety : Discolor, Muhl. 



2. " Acuminata, Lamk. 



3. " Epiptera, Michx. 



4. " Pistaciaefolia, Torr. 



2. Sub-species : Novae-Angliag, Mill. 



i. Variety : Berlanderiana, DC. 



3. Sub-species : Pennsylvanica, Marsh. 



i. Variety : Longifolia, Vahl. 



I. Sub-variety : Aucubcefolia hort. 

 ii. Variety : Sub-pubescens, Pers. 

 iii. " Latifolia, Willd. 



iv. " Rubicunda, Bosc. 



4. Sub-species: Oregana, Nutt. 



III. F. Nigra. 



1. Sub-species: Nigra, Marsh. 



2. " Caroliniana, Mill. 



IV.. F. OUADRANGULALA, Michx. 



V. F, Anomata, Torr. 



Nancy, Belgium. Alfred VVesmael. 



Hardy Plants at Passaic, New Jersey. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — I went over to Passaic, New Jersey, a few days since 

 to see the early summer flowers in Woolson & Co.'s Nursery. 

 Paeonies are widely distributed plants, but it is onl)' in a nur- 

 sery where they are grown by the acre that the full effective- 



