June 29, 1892.] 



Garden and Forest. 



3" 



and probably nothing less than a solid coating of sand as a 

 smother will suppress them entirely. The wild growths which 

 covered the sloping banks have been suppressed by the sand 

 and mold which were used largely in regulating the grades. 

 The upper reaches of the swamp have been regulated, but 

 some of the attractive native growths of Cat-tails, bold Grasses, 

 Arums, Azaleas, etc., have been cleared from encroaching and 

 unattractive things, so as to leave bits of natural Ijeauty in char- 

 acter with such a place. Among these, informal paths lead to 

 quiet pools reflecting many a common and native plant which 

 seem rare beauties in such a setting. The sloping grounds on 

 the southern border have been somewhat cleared, and contain 

 a multitude of Ferns, and are being gradually filled with hardy 

 plants, placed quite informally among the sparse grasses and 

 various creepers which now cover the ground. Some terres- 

 trial Orchids, small Irises, etc., seemed quite in character here. 

 But it is intended to make the water-garden the main attrac- 

 tion. The borders are now quite well filled with Irises (mostly 

 I. versicolor and I. K;empfen), Eiilalias, Wild Rice, Arundo 

 Dona.x, Pontederia cordata and Calamus. The main body of 

 water is well stocked with hardy Nymphasas, of which there is 

 a large variety. Some of the established plants were well in 

 flower during my visit. The difficulty Mr. Nash experienced 

 with his first plantings arose from the too abundant supply of 

 cold water. This has been somewhat obviated, but the tender 

 varieties are now grown in large basins formed by driving 

 planks to confine the water, and in which it will become some- 

 what heated. The margins of these basins are masked by 

 trailers and low-growing plants, while certain islets between 

 them are devoted to grasses and plants with noble foliage. 



Like all fanciers of aquatics, Mr. Nash has an ambition to 

 flower Victoria regia, the giant of the Nympheseceas, and one 

 of the wonders of the vegetable world. While this plant is 

 flowered in this latitude in the open air, its growth is not en- 

 tirely made there, and somewhat elaborate arrangements are 

 necessary to bring it forward successfully. The plant, being an 

 annual, is started from seed in strong heat, in January or early 

 February, in the greenhouse and kept moving in warmth. As 

 soon as the weather permits it is shifted into its permanent 

 tank — one about thirty feet in diameter being necessary, and 

 is covered with a tight frame with sash. It is necessary to 

 keep the temperature of the tank at eighty degrees and up- 

 ward and retain the covering until settled warm weather. 

 The heat here was supplied by a stove, with water circulation 

 sunk in a caisson alongside the tank. It is usual, I believe, to 

 use the tank as the expansion tank of the stove, but here the 

 tank was supplied with fresh water led from a greenhouse 

 tank several hundred feet away which passed through the 

 heater. The Victoria flowers in about four months from seed, 

 the quickest-flowering being reported this season by Mr. Bry- 

 don of Yarmouthport, Mass., who had flowers in 107 days. 

 Mr. Nash's plants will be in flower next month, and will prob- 

 ably be the only ones to be seen conveniently near New York 

 City. The leaves of the Victoria are wonderiul affairs, both in 

 size and structurally. They are uncanny, fleshy-looking ob- 

 jects, but well worth a journey to see. It is a pleasure to be 

 able to record the rapid progress of this park, which, while 

 projected for private pleasure, is really a public improvement 

 worth copying, especially where such waste places are promi- 

 nent near traveled roads. 



Elizabeth, N.J. /. /V. tr. 



Periodical Literature. 



In Harper s Magazine for June there is an attractive article 

 upon eastern Peru, written by Mr. Courtenay De Kalb, which 

 shows how artistic, in its works of industrial art, a semi-savage 

 race can be, and also how large a part the Palm-tree plays in 

 these arts in the countries where it grows. 



North-eastern Peru, which is called the Montana, or "wooded 

 country," has been brought more into contact with the outer 

 world since the opening of the Amazon River to the traffic of 

 all nations in 1866. But its white population, chiefly of Portu- 

 guese origin, has not yet " attempted entrance upon the do- 

 main of the arts." The landed proprietors, living in close as- 

 sociation with troops of Indian agricultural laborers, have but 

 sparingly introduced "the picturesque into their architecture, 

 although the Portuguese type of structure, creeping up the 

 river from Brazil, has feebly asserted itself as far as the mate- 

 rials at hand will allow," and the Spanish idea appears also in 

 certain spots. " Here are the great porches and balconies, the 

 open galleries letting a bit of light through the corner of the 

 house, just under the red-tiled roof, and the pretty inner court, 

 or patio, filled with tropical verdure." But "the pollen of In- 

 dian influence has modified exotic taste at times, where the 



house resembles the Palm-thatched quincha, or native hut, 

 and is decorated on the interior with Palm-leaf mats fastened 

 upon the walls with the horizontally fluted Huicungo palm- 

 posts at the doorways, and above them gratings of Palm-slats 

 lashed together by vines, forming combinations of grace well 

 worthy of imitation in other lands. Upon extraordinary occa- 

 sions, when a dinner is to be given, they bring from the for- 

 ests masses of the long green fronds of the Palm, vines all 

 aflame with pink and scarlet blossoms, and the rich umbrella- 

 shaped Paw-paw, and convert the banquet-room into a bower 

 of fairy-like beauty." 



As regards the minor arts, the writer says : "The common 

 Indian is l)ut a savage with some of the tricks of civilization, a 

 house-builder, a planter of Maize and Yucca, a weaver of cloth 

 and of hammocks, a fashioner of works of fictile art of sur- 

 prising beauty. Without turn-table, simply by a feeling for 

 correct form, are these jars, urns, dishes built up by hand with 

 wooden spatulas. The decoration has Ijecome thoroughly 

 conventionalized, crystallized, in fact, into a type of aesthetic 

 expression which may truly be designated art. Predominant 

 is the old classic form of fret and chevron, executed in sub- 

 dued reds and deep browns upon a gray or creamy ground. 

 Sometimes the leading design is in very heavy lines, with the 

 ground filled in with an exquisitely delicate tracery of similar 

 patterns. The plant-life of the forest is also reproduced — 

 vines, not rudely delineated, but forming definite curves, 

 springing upward at the end of the pattern and expanding into 

 the calyx which holds the conventionalized type of a corolla, 

 now a yellow five-rayed star, again a pink-flushed Lily's cup, 

 or a sky-blue pendent bell. The artisUc spirit displayed in 

 these recalls the wonderful works of Inca art exhumed at the 

 noted necropolis of Ancon. The Indian, again, manifests his 

 appreciation of graceful form in the rounded ends of his 

 quincha, which give an effective curve to the palm-thatched 

 roof." 



Recent Publications. 



The third annual report of the Missouri Botanic Garden 

 makes a handsome volume of one hundred and seventy pages 

 and contains fifty-seven full-page plates. It contains the report 

 of the President of the Board of Trustees, the director's re- 

 port showing the progress of renovating the old garden and 

 of extending and improving it, and telling of the development 

 of the library and herbarium and of the school of botany, all 

 of which, through the magnificent endowment of this estab- 

 lishment, are fast becoming of great importance and seem 

 destined to make St. Louis the botanical headquarters of the 

 New World. 



Mr. Shaw, under his gift, has provided that a flower sermon 

 should be preached annually in St. Louis and that the trustees 

 of the Garden should give an annual banquet in honor of his 

 memory, as well as a second banquet intended to bring per- 

 sons interested commercially in plant-culture together. "This 

 volume contains the second of the annual flower sermons 

 preached this last year by the Rev. Montgomery Schuyler, 

 the proceedings at the second annual banquet which was given 

 by the trustees on May 21st of last year at which the Secretary 

 of the Interior was the guest of honor, and also the proceed- 

 ings at the second annual banquet to gardeners, florists and 

 nurserymen, given on the loth of November. 



Of more permanent interest to students of science are the 

 scientific papers appended to the volume ; these are Professor 

 Trelease's Revision of the American Species of Rumex, oc- 

 curring north of Mexico, to which mention has already been 

 made in these columns, a paper by Professor Riley on the 

 Yucca Moth and Yucca Pollination, also illustrated, and Pro- 

 fessor Trelease's Notes and Observations on the Genus Yucca, 

 which he has been engaged in studying in the field during the 

 past winter. These notes are illustrated from sketches origi- 

 nally made by Dr. Engelmann, depicting the floral and 

 capsular structure of several of the species which had never 

 been adequately figured, which Professor Trelease had the 

 happy idea to have redrawn in ink and then published by a 

 process of photo-engraving. These sketches of Dr. Engel- 

 mann are supplemented by reproductions of photographs 

 showing the habit and growth of several species which are 

 here, in some cases, better portrayed than we have seen them 

 elsewhere. 



This volume, whose contents we have thus cursorily 

 sketched, can be obtained at the cost of the publication ($1.00) 

 from A. E. Foote of Philadelphia, Wesley & Son of London, 

 and of R. Friedlander & Sohn of Berlin ; while applications 

 for the purchase or exchange of either of the reports of the 



