November 30, 1892.] 



Garden and Forest. 



565 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office : Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducted by Professor C. S. Sargent. 



ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POST OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. Y. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1892. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PACK. 



Editorial Articles : — Specinli/.ed Horticulture 565 



The Movement to Preserve the Forests of the White Mountains 565 



A Disease in the Vineyards of California 566 



On Broad Top.— I. (With illustration.) Mira Lloyd Dock. 566 



Late Autumn in The Pines Mrs. Mary Treat. 567 



Gardening in llie Confederacy O. W. Blacknall, 568 



Nf,\v or Little-known Plants :—Celastrus scandens. {With fi<^ure.) 568 



Foreign Corkespondence : — The London Chrysanthemum Exliibition, 



W. Watsmt. 568 



Cultural Department :— Propagating New Strawberries O. W. Blackjiall. 570 



A few Notable Slu'ubs in late November J. G. Jack. 571 



Orchid Notes M. Barker. 572 



Basket-plants for Window Culture W. H. Taplin. 572 



Chrysanthemums Naturally Grown J. N. Gerard. 573 



Sonerila Henderson! B. 573 



Correspondence : — About Irises C. B. IK 573 



Dolichos Japonicus A. H. Olmsted. 574 



Wood Roads on Cape Cod Mrs. Schuyler Van Eensselaer. 574 



The Niagara Reservation Joh7i Chamberlin. 575 



Periodical Literature 575 



Notes 



Illustrations : — Celastrus scandens, Fig. 97 



Road through a Chestnut Wood on Broad Top, Fig. g8 571 



575 



q-] 



Specialized Horticulture. 



' HE request for certain information about Irises, which 

 _|_ a correspondent makes in another column, suggests 

 a subject to which we have before alluded, and that is, the 

 instruction and recreation which can be derived from the 

 careful cultivation of a single class of plants. Irises con- 

 stitute a varied and extensive genus of perennial plants, 

 and they rank among the most beautiful of garden-plants. 

 They range in size from that of the towering Iris (Mor^a) 

 Robinsoniana, which has been figured in our columns, to the 

 delicate little species like our own Crested Iris, which nes- 

 tle close to the ground. Some of them are of the easiest 

 cultivation, like the hybrids known as German Irises, and 

 others like some of the Oncocyclus group are perverse, 

 or, at least, wayward in cultivation, and require syin- 

 pathetic care and the highest skill. Irises have always 

 been favorites of those who devote themselves to the culti- 

 vation of herbaceous perennials, and yet there is enough 

 to learn about the genus to fill the leisure hours of any one 

 for years to come. Occasionally there is an enthusiast like 

 Professor Michael Foster, of Carnbridge, England, who 

 keeps on the alert for every novelty of the family, and who 

 tests each new one in his garden, but the flowers, in spite 

 of their beauty, have never had any vogue like Chrysan- 

 themums or Dahlias, and no Iris society has yet been 

 formed, to our knowledge. So far as we know, there are 

 not many large collections in this country, although one 

 of our correspondents, Mr. J. N. Gerard, has cultivated 

 about one hundred and twenty-five species and many more 

 garden varieties. 



Few occupations are more fascinating than specialized 

 gardening of this sort. It is easy enough to get a general 

 idea of any class of plants, but the farther we descend to 

 particulars the more there is to study and to admire. If 

 we care for garden decoration simply, we select for our 

 purpose such plants as can be used with the most marked 

 decorative effect ; but as soon as we begin to have a special 



interest in one class of plants we are drawn to them as to 

 personal friends by an entirely different kind of attraction. 

 We are eager to know all about their relatives and the habits 

 of the family, and \\'& are ready to study and explore every 

 field from which any knowledge of our favorites can be 

 gained. One can soon learn to grow, for example, all the 

 species and varieties of Iris which make a show in the 

 garden, but if he aims to be an expert in the cultivation of 

 Irises, or to possess himself of authoritative knowledge con- 

 cerning them, if to his admiration of their beauty and his 

 affection for the special genus he adds the enthusiasm of a 

 collector, he will have not only a diversion that will oc- 

 cupy all his leisure moments, but one that will also absorb 

 as large a fraction of his surplus revenue as he chooses to 

 appropriate for the purpose. 



The enthusiast is cheered and sustained in all his labors 

 and studies by the hope of securing a plant he has never 

 seen, or of inducing one to flower with which he has often 

 failed ; and yet the results of his thought and care extend 

 far beyond his personal gratification. The men who make 

 a special study of a single class of flowers are the ones 

 who really add the most to the general knowledge of plants. 

 There is enough in many single genera of plants to oc- 

 cupy the leisure of a lifetime, and the plants only yield up 

 their secrets to those who give them patient and affection- 

 ate study year after year. We have mentioned Irises, but, 

 of course, there are many other genera which have their 

 ardent devotees^enthusiasls who have their reward in 

 the daily delight of increasing knowledge, but who also 

 enlarge and enrich the art of horticulture by their experience. 

 Daffodils, in their unending variety, have long been 

 favorites of specialists in Europe, although large collec- 

 tions of them are rare in this country. Lilies appeal to a still 

 larger class. The Saxifrage, hardly known in gardens con- 

 ducted on conventional lines, has already become a pet 

 flower of the specialist, and a list of the different species 

 which can be furnished to buyers will occupy several pages in 

 a catalogue like that of Monsieur Correvon, of Geneva. The 

 various articles which we have published from the pen of 

 Mr. W. E. Endicott show how wide is the range of knowl- 

 edge and experience he has gained while recreating him- 

 self with the cultivation of the beautiful Cape bulbs, and 

 his instructive writings on the subject are admirable exam- 

 ples of the extent to which the horticultural world is at last 

 indebted to these special students. 



When we begin with the greenhouse there is no end to 

 theattractivefamilies which invite special investigation. But 

 if we undertake any branch of specialized horticulture, one 

 of the first things we learn is not to attempt too much. We 

 do not need to abandon all interest in general horticulture, 

 for very likely a special devotion to one class of plants will 

 give us an increased pleasure in all others. But the field 

 of our systematic operations must be limited, and we shall 

 be surprised to find that however we restrict its boundaries 

 we shall still have too much for the careful study and ex- 

 periment we feel inclined to give. This is the rule, and in 

 this way has horticulture ever received its strongest im- 

 pulse. In this direction too, lie some of the purest delights 

 of the garden ; in fact, there is no other way in which so 

 much satisfaction can be derived from the cultivation of 

 plants. 



It is gratifying to observe that the movement to preserve 

 the forests of the- White Mountains, of which we gave an 

 account some weeks ago, is meeting with very general en- 

 dorsement by the papers of New England and the middle 

 states, and that a fund has been started by the Boston Herald 

 to aid this campaign of education. There is no need of any 

 additional argument to show that the loss of these New 

 Hampshire forests would be in the nature of a national ca- 

 lamity, or to prove that such a danger is constantly threat- 

 ening so long as these forests remain in private hands and 

 under our present laws. It is not an easy problem to de- 

 cide just how this danger may be averted with the least 

 friction to private interests and established customs, but 



