July 6, 1892.! 



Garden and Forest. 



321 



will be ornamental probably till the Sagittnrias comnicnce to 

 llower with a change of effect. Of the i>inlv Nyinpha^as there 

 is now a nearly coniplete series throngh the entire gamut of 

 color between the slightly tinted N. carnea to the deep car- 

 mine-rose of N. odorata exquisita. This last has a color tone 

 in the way of N. rubrum, but lighter. Of the various white 

 Nymph;i;'as, among which there is a wide difference in form, I 

 am inclined to give the palm for beauty to N. Marliacas albida. 

 This is a Hovver of the largest size, with petals somevvliat nar- 

 rower tlian those of N. alba. The color is a lustrous silvery 

 white, very distinct and beautiful. ~ ,, ^ 



Elizabeth, N.J. J.N. Gerard. 



Tlie Importance of Microbes in the Cultivation of 



Plants. 



MONSIEUR CHARLES NAUDIN, in an article in the 

 Reiiue des Sciences Naturelles, gives a plausible ex- 

 planation of the frequent failures which occur in growing 

 exotic plants. Even though the conditions surrounding the 

 plant may apparently be favorable to its development, it 

 often seems that an essential element is wanting. Monsieur 

 Naudin considers this element to be, in a great many cases, 

 the fertilizing microbe which is found in the soil in which the 

 cultivated species originally grew. 



Several facts support this theory. He cites cases relating 

 to certain species, in which it has been impossible to grow 

 the plants, whatever the composition of the soil in which 

 they are placed. His own experiments, which were carried on 

 with seedlings, strongly incline him to the belief that the . 

 presence of certain micro-organisms in the soil is an indis- 

 pensable factor for the development of many plants. It is 

 well known that fertile soils swarm with several kinds of 

 microbes, and it also seems that certain plants are infested with 

 microbes peculiar to them. Monsieur Naudin says that these 

 may be transmitted from one generation to the next, and even 

 though the plant may not die outright,, its growth may be 

 checked and its life shortened, if certain lower forms of life 

 are not present. 



Cornell University. E. G. Lodemail. 



Correspondence. 



New England Country Houses. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — Your correspondent, S. P. S., who does me the honor 

 to agree with me in a taste for warm colors in house-painting, 

 suggests that stone and brick would in the end be more profit- 

 able, as well as picturesque, building materials than wood, 

 vsdiich requires frequent painting and occasional renewing. 

 While agreeing with the writer wholly as to the more interest- 

 ing and picturesque character of solid construction, I still think 

 that there are serious objections to using brick and stone for 

 houses in a New England village. 



These materials, so pleasantly cool in a continuously hot 

 summer climate, are apt to make a dvi'elling damp and cold 

 wheq our variable wind whisks round suddenly to, the north- 

 east after days of tropical heat. So 16ng as the weather is cool 

 enough to permit a light furnace fire, stone hovises are very 

 agreeable, but the torrid temperature of our summer days 

 never fairly warms through a thick wall, and the change from 

 out-of-doors is often chilling and uncomfortable on a day when 

 a wooden house would prove just pleasantly cool. To be sure, 

 a fire on the hearth can be easily lighted, but it requires an 

 army of servants to attend to open fires in many rooms, and 

 the consequence is that one often goes unwarmed rather than 

 take the trouble to attend to the falling logs, which it is unsafe 

 to leave, and the consequent chill received is unwholesome. 

 There is an undeniable dampness about brick and stone dwell- 

 ings here, which shows itself in the rust on steel and iron ob- 

 jects, in mold on neglected shoes, in spots on the walls of 

 shut-up rooms, which proves that they are seldom thoroughly 

 dry without artificial heat. Even in the brick-ended houses, 

 with wooden fronts and backs, common in some old-fashioned 

 towns, there is the same trouble from the collection of mold 

 and rust even in houses not shaded by trees. This is not ex- 

 perienced in wooden houses unless in very wet and shaded 

 localities, which shows that there is a freer circulation of air in 

 frame-dwellings, and a healthful dryness even in shut-up por- 

 tions during the summer. 



Sea-side buildings of stone are apt to leak around the win- 

 dows during a driving storm, so thaT much damage is often 

 done even in an apparently well-built house, and in cold win- 

 ters the pointing with mortar is apt to crack and let in the rain. 



Severe seasons are also apt to throw rubble-work wholly out of 

 place, and to occasion a great deal of damage in houses built 

 of it. Moreover, is rubble-work in itself proper material even 

 for the lower story of a house ? To me it always seems to 

 wear an air of insecurity, as if it might fall to pieces at any 

 moment, especially when invisibly jjointed, as is now the 

 fasliion, so that there is apparently nothing to hold the round 

 stones together. 



When we see what freaks the lifting of frost will play with 

 unmortared walls of the most massive construction, throwing 

 them down till huge gaps are visible in them, one may well 

 hesitate to employ anything that looks as if it might be lialjle 

 to that sort of upsetting when the mercury goes below zero. Of 

 course, the walls can be constructed to stand firmly, but any- 

 thing vvhich looks insecure is architecturally faulty, however 

 picturesque it may be. Frost and rain certainly do queer 

 things in the Yankee climate, which shows a special animosity 

 to outdoor plaster of all kinds, and when a high wind blows, 

 almost any one feels niore comfortable in something that may 

 possibly blow away all in one piece, but will certainly not 

 tumble into fragments like a house of cards. 



But, after all, the very serious objection to brick and stone is 

 in the immense difference in the first expense of building 

 with these materials, especially outside of a town where work- 

 men are easily to be obtained ; for in the country only a few 

 men understand the business, one or two bricklayers usually 

 sufficing to a village, and as many stonelayers having charge 

 of the construction of cellars. In any case an outside stone 

 wall costs at least twice as much as wood. As to painting, a 

 brick house has to be oiled or painted about as often as a 

 wooden one, to keep the water from driving through its porous 

 structure, and the additional pointing which must be renewed 

 occasionally in white-lead, also painted, is another i'em of ex- 

 pense. Also, stone and brick buildings have to be constructed 

 on a much larger scale than wooden ones, to admit of an air 

 space between the outer wall and the lathing to prevent damp- 

 ness constantly penetrating the interior. Another point is the 

 transportation of the heavy materials, which is very expensive 

 compared to the transportation of wood, even if the stones are 

 close at hand, as any one who undertakes to lay a few score 

 feet of mortared wall of stone on his own land soon learns to 

 his concern. 



All these objections have weight with those to whom ex- 

 pense is an object, and there are few people who live all the 

 year round in the country who do not have to count the cost 

 of their houses with considerable care. The melancholy 

 result of such calculation reveals that the picturesque is in- 

 variably the most expensive as well as the least durable of ways 

 to build. Numerous gables represent places for leakage ; 

 stone and brick laid in mortar require close attention in our 

 bitter climate, and the angles and recesses, so charming in a 

 wooden house, render it the more dilificult to keep in order. 

 In short, true economy in building, both for durability and 

 cheapness of maintaining and heating, was obtained by our 

 colonial ancestors with their square uncompromising domi- 

 ciles ; and to this day these frame-dwellings, with such modifi- 

 cation of their bareness of outline as may be obtained by 

 verandas and bay-windows and skillfully placed railings, still 

 remain the most profitable houses to build, and the least ex- 

 pensive to keep in order in New England, where the accessible 

 stone is almost always very difficult to cut and handle, unlike 

 a lime-stone or gneiss, which latter flakes off in a way that 

 makes it ready for use without undue labor. 



Hingham, Mass. M. C. Robbins. 



A Foreigner's Impressions of America. — III. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — My first impressions of America had left me with a 

 vague sense of perplexity at the inconsistency between the 

 glorious woods and the neglected front yards — my spring im- 

 pressions only served to deepen this feeling. I did not feel it 

 so much at first. It was so delightful to be out of town again, 

 and the charm of Bean-stalk Land, of a new country, more 

 open and free and bright than our ordinary European suburbs, 

 was upon me strongly. The Boston suburb I had chosen is a 

 very lovely one, rural and dignified. The older houses retain 

 their original extensive grounds, and in the newer streets near 

 the station the houses have not yet begun to crowd each 

 other. There were but few fences, but that only seemed in 

 keeping with the hospitable, old-world character of the large 

 places, while the smaller grounds afforded full views of spark- 

 ling young grass and Peach-trees in bloom, entirely in har- 

 mony with the strange beauty of the keen spring air. 



As April deepened into May, however, with the first glory 



