August 3, 1892.] 



Garden and Forest. 



363 



commissioners for New Jersey have done wisely in select- 

 ing- as the model of their club-house the old Washington 

 Headquarters at Morristown, which is the most famous 

 house in the state and one of the most famous historical 

 houses in the Union, not only because more persons dis- 

 tinguished in the military history of the Revolution have 

 been gathered under its roof than under any other roof in 

 America, but because it is an excellent example of the 

 architecture of the time when it was built, and because it 

 has been kept in such an admirable state of preservation. 

 It is rather unusual, too, in America, for a house to remain 

 continuously in the possession of one family so long as 

 this one did, for the deed which conveyed the building to the 

 trustees of the state was given by the seventh generation, 

 counting from the honored mother of Colonel Jacob Ford, 

 who owned the building when it was occupied by Wash- 

 ington. 



The original house seems good for another hundred 

 years at least, and the same oaken planks, caulked like the 

 shell of a frigate, remain on the outer walls as sound to- 

 day as when they sheltered Washington from the storms 

 of the winter of 1779 and 1780. The old floors are still firm ; 

 the double oaken doors, which opened and shut for Wash- 

 ington, open and shut to-day, and there has been hardly 

 any change or repair or restoration in the house from bot- 

 tom to top. The same surbases, windows, mantel-pieces, 

 fire-places, hearth-stones, and the same carving on the 

 lintel and cornice remain just as they came from the hands 

 of the artisan. The house, too, with its wide hall and 

 spacious rooms, will be cool and well adapted to the pur- 

 pose for which it is intended. Let us hope that all the 

 details of the building will be accurately copied, so that it 

 .will be a genuine reproduction and not a parody. Of 

 course, one thing cannot be repeated, and that is the sur- 

 roundings of the old house at Morristown. One charm of 

 the place is the perfect adaptation of the house to the rich 

 landscapes which stretch away from it on every hand. 

 One change is said to be contemplated, but this will not 

 be ruinous, and that is the addition of an extension similar 

 to the one seen in the right of the picture, on page 367, on 

 the opposite end of the house. This would be after the 

 symmetrical style of southern colonial houses, and would, 

 probably, be what Colonel Ford would have done if he 

 had ever enlarged his residence. Nevertheless, if the 

 building, as it now is, offers room enough for the accom- 

 modation of New Jersey at the fair, no change whatever 

 in the model should be permitted. 



' Water-plants in Southern New Jersey. 



VERY attractive are the ponds in the Pines at this season, 

 with the plants which float upon their surfaces or bloom 

 above them or riot in the swampy ground about their mar- 

 gins. The sweet-scented Water-lily (Nymphaea odorata), with 

 its singular grace of form, purity of color and exquisite fra- 

 grance, must ever remain the queen of wild water-flowers. 

 These plants are attractive anywhere, but they are never so 

 charming as they are in some lonely wood-bordered lakelet. 

 No doubt, the cultivators who make artificial basins for grow- 

 ing them enjoy their loneliness, and this is the only way most 

 people are perniitted to enjoy them. But a Tank-lily can 

 never be a Pond-lily, after all. Varying forms of the yellow 

 Pond-lily (Nuphar) are here, too, some with yellow flowers, 

 others quite purple. The flower is interesting and curious, 

 with its many-rayed stigma and numerous small petals 

 crowded among the stamens under the ovary, a snug retreat, 

 where small insects seem to find something to their liking. 



Another plant belonging to the Water-lily family is the pe- 

 culiar Brasenia peltata, or Water-shield, which is scattered in 

 thick patches over the ponds. Its long-stemmed, shield- 

 shaped leaves float gracefully on the water and bear clusters 

 of small purple flowers in their axils. The stems and flower- 

 buds are coated with a clear, limpid jelly, and when held in 

 the sunlight they sparkle like plants covered with ice after a 

 winter's sleet. The Floating Heart (Limnanthemum lacuno- 

 sum) is another plant quite common in the ponds. It has 

 smooth, shining, small heart-shaped leaves, often beautifully 



mottled with white, and pretty clusters of small white flowers. 

 It belongs to the Gentian family, and continues in bloom 

 throughout the summer. The large velvety leaves of the 

 Golden-club (Orontium aquaticum) are also floating on tlie 

 water, and the greenish-looking seeds are falling from the 

 spadix and scattered along the edge of the pond. 



The narrow-leaved Cat-tail, Typlia angustifolia, as well as the 

 more common T. latifolia, left its spears above the marshes 

 in a delightfully decorative way. The narrow-leaved Typha is 

 specially pretty and delicate, with its slender, dense, brown spikes 

 of flowers. AndSagittaria, with its many forms, well named from 

 its arrow-shaped leaves, is not to be despised. The flowers are 

 pure white, and some of them are quite large and handsome, 

 although they look so frail, with their almost transparent pe- 

 tals. They keep in bloom all summer long. The blue flowers 

 of the Pickerel-weed (Pontederia cordata) contrast well with 

 the Sagittaria, and were it not for the ephemeral character of 

 the flowers, which gives the spike a ragged appearance, they 

 would look charmingly together, as they both continue in 

 bloom well into October. 



The button-like dull white flowers of Eriocaulon, or Pipe- 

 wort, stand well up out of the water on their straight, slender, 

 naked scapes, while their loose, cellular, grass-like leaves are 

 entirely submerged. Two or three species of Yellow-eyed 

 Grass (Xyris) are in company with Eriocaulon. The slender, 

 rigid, compact leaves and scapes of the first are quite in con- 

 trast with the loose cellular structure of the other. The flow- 

 ers of Xyris are small and yellow, and produced all summer 

 from rigid scale-like heads. The leaves and scapes of some 

 of the species are curiously contorted and twisted, especially 

 in those of X. torta. 



Several species of the perplexing Bladderwort (Utricularia) 

 are floating on the water, eluding all of my efforts to learn the 

 cause of the merciless slaughter of the little aquatic animals 

 around them. U. clandestina, perhaps, causes more ruin 

 among the tiny inhabitants of the pond than either of the other 

 species. Its submerged leaves and stems are thickly studded 

 with curious bladder-like traps, ready to capture the unwary 

 creatures which venture near enough to touch the marvelous 

 door which suddenly opens and draws them in and quickly 

 closes, never to be opened from the inside to let a victim es- 

 cape. Great numbers of the larvse of the chironomus-fly and 

 of the mosquito, and many entromoscans are alike made 

 prisoners in their chambers of death. 



The inflated Bladderwort (U. inflata) is the most elegant spe- 

 cies in the genus. It floats on the water easily and gracefully 

 at the will of the wind, with erect stems surmounted with 

 large yellow flowers. In the place of roots is a whorl of white 

 inflated bladder-like stems, each an inch or two in length, 

 which keep the plant afloat and right side up. Below the in- 

 flated stems are finely dissected leaves containing many little 

 bladders with the same structure as those of U. clandestina, 

 but, as far as I have observed, this species entraps very few 

 creatures. Another handsome species is the Purple Bladder- 

 wort (U. purpurea). This also floats on the water, but in thick 

 tangled masses, from which arise many flower-scapes with 

 rather large purple blossoms. This species bears more blad- 

 ders than either of the others, and under a low power of the 

 microscope they are beautiful objects. Their construction 

 is quite unlike those which belong to the yellow-flowering 

 species. 



Great masses of Drosera longifolia are growing in the more 

 shallow places, with long stems raising the leaves and flowers 

 out of the water. In some places they are as thick as they 

 can well stand over quite a large space. They are beautiful 

 plants glistening in the sunshine like jewels. But they, too, 

 are death-traps, and destroy the lives of many creatures of the 

 air, that seem to be attracted by sticky fluid that exudes 

 from the glands and sparkles on their leaves. When a fly 

 alights upon a leaf it is held fast, and many of the leaves are 

 found folded entirely around their victims. 



Another species, D. filiforniis, is here too, growing in wet 

 sand ; this has long, thread-like leaves, ten to twelve inches 

 in length, covered from base to summit with reddish glands 

 like those of D. longifolia. The scape is a foot or so in height, 

 bearing handsome rose-colored flowers which last through 

 July and August. This species captures many insects, butter- 

 flies and moths and large Asilus flies, and many others. 

 When an insect alights and finds itself fast, it is natural for it 

 to reach out and grasp other leaves, and so it becomes more 

 and more entangled among them, until escape is impossible. 

 The handsome Pitcher-plant also grows here, and looking 

 within its curiously constructed cup we find here, too, many 

 captured insects, 

 vindand, N. J. Mary Treat. 



