April 4, 1888.] 



Garden and Forest. 



63 



gaining ground not only among those who have abundant 

 leisure for the examination of plants, but also among that 

 large class to whom plants and flowers mean a livelihood. 

 These latter having the requisite skill to turn their floral 

 treasures to good account may sometimes plead their lack 

 of time as an excuse for neglecting the study of the prin- 

 ciples which underlie their practice. And, furthermore, it 

 seems a formidable task to turn over the dry leaves of a 

 text-book, when one has been working with fresh flowers 

 all day, or has been planning picturesque landscapes with 

 shrubs and trees and water. 



In some countries a thorough study of the elements of 

 botany is an essential part of the apprenticeship of an ac- 

 complished gardener, and such knowledge saves its pos- 

 sessor from many an error of judgment. Such acquisition 

 is by no means so formidable a task as would at first 

 appear, since a host of interesting and instructive elemen- 

 tary works is now easily accessible. 



For one without a teacher, the task is not wholly free 

 from difficulties, but none of these difticulties need be dis- 

 heartening. A plain course designed to place any intel- 

 ligent young person in possession of the more important 

 facts, and essential principles of elementary botany, 

 might well begin with a thorough study of some such 

 work as that noticed in our first number (Gray's "Elements 

 of Botany "), and with the ' 'Field and Forest Botany, " by the 

 same author. Let each point be illustrated from the living 

 plants at hand, and let the main design of the two books 

 be carried out fully — namely, to understand the plan of 

 eacn flower, and to learn its relations to others. The mere 

 ascertaining of the name of a plant in a convenient hand- 

 book is an easy matter, but if the easy work is well done, it 

 brings out clearly many important features which might 

 otherwise be overlooked. The study of the two books just 

 mentioned ought to be supplemented by the collection and 

 drying of such wild and cultivated plants as fall in one's 

 way, making capital material for further study in the 

 winter. In the " Elements," Professor Gray has given full 

 directions for collecting and studying such specimens. 



In the second season, the work should be somewhat 

 wider in its range. With the "Elements'" still as a guide, or 

 sort of grammar, the student will begin to collect plants as 

 before, but he will need some more comprehensive treatise, 

 like the "Manual of Botany," for the determination of the 

 wild plants collected ; and now may be undertaken also 

 the perusal of some volume like Bessey's "Botany," which 

 will give much information regarding other plants than 

 those which bear flowers. And, if possible, the student 

 should now attempt to examine the minute structure or 

 microscopic anatomy of the plants with which he deals. 

 Either the "Manual of Plant Dissection," by Arthur, Barnes 

 andCoulter, or the " Practical Botany,'' by Bower and 'Vines, 

 will serve this purpose fully. The former is rather better 

 for most of our American students, whose time is limited. 

 Within tne last year we have become acquainted with one 

 young man who undertook a course similar in some 

 respects to that here indicated, and the course had been 

 successfully prosecuted under considerable difficulties. To 

 that young man, the plants of his trade mean more than 

 they have ever done before. Can it be thought that his 

 skill in managing plants will be any the less for what he 

 has learned regarding their life and peculiarities of struc- 

 ture ? 



For collateral reading while one is pursuing such a 

 practical course as is here indicated, the following works 

 are recommended: Le Maout and Decaisne's "System of 

 Botany," "The Treasury of Botany;" works of travel, like 

 Wallace's "Tropical Nature," Hooker's "Himalaya," Ball's 

 "Marocco," Bate's "Naturalist on the Amazon," and the like. 

 And, also, the charming and ever instructive works of 

 Darwin, such as "The Power of Movement in Plants," 

 " The Fertilization of Orchids," etc. From the wealth of 

 interesting botanical reading, now brought within the reach 

 of most horticulturists by means of the public libraries, 

 it is easy to select trustworthy teachings, from which 



those who get their living from plants may know in the 

 fullest sense how the plants themselves live. 



In horticulture — as, we are told, was the case in all 

 other departments of human activity even so early as the 

 time of the wise king of Israel — the novelties of to-day are 

 apt to be merely the forgotten novelties of the past. 

 A flowering Dogwood with pink bracts is now much 

 talked of by nurserymen as something entirely new. But 

 old Mark Catesby, a century and a half ago, found " one of 

 these Dogwood trees with flowers of a rose-color ; " and 

 the tree having " luckily been blown down and many of 

 its branches taking root," he was able "to transplant this 

 variety into a garden." This garden was in "Virginia where 

 Catesby lived for a time, and a colored plate showing the 

 pink-flowered Dogwood appeared in his work on the 

 natural history of "Virginia, Carolina and Florida, which 

 was published in 1731 after his return to England. 



Landscape Gardening — "VI. 



N my preceding chapters I tried to explain the points of 

 likeness and unlikeness that exist between landscape 

 gardening and the pursuits to which we more usually give 

 the name of Fine Arts. The explanation has been not only 

 brief but fragmentary ; but it will have fulfilled my purpose 

 if it has shown with any degree of clearness that landscape 

 gardening too should be called a Fine Art. 



It remains now to ask. When and where do we need to 

 exercise this art ? The answer must be, Whenever and 

 wherever we touch the surface of the ground and the 

 plants it bears with any wish to produce an organized re- 

 sult that shall be agreeable to the eye. We must not be 

 misled by the over-precision of our accustomed terms into 

 thinking that art is needed only for the production of broad 

 landscape effects. It is needed whenever we do more than 

 merely grow plants for the sake of their beauty as isolated 

 individuals. It matters not whether we wish to arrange a 

 great park or a small city square, a large estate or a modest 

 door-yard — we must go about the work in an artistic spirit 

 if we want a good result. Two trees and si.x shrubs and 

 a scrap of lawn and a dozen flowering plants may form 

 either a beautiful little picture or a huddled little mass of 

 greenery and colors. If it is the first, it will give us the 

 truly a'sthetic satisfaction we get from a good landscape 

 painting — indeed, it will give us more than this, for the 

 painted picture never varies, while the living one will reveal 

 new beauties day by day with the changing seasons, hour 

 by hour with the shifting shadows. If it is the second, it 

 will please us only by the beauty of certain scattered de- 

 tails ; and even these details will be intrinsically less 

 delightful than had they formed part of an agreeable 

 general effect. A good composition has been defined by 

 Ruskin as one in which every detail helps the general 

 beauty of effect ; but it may also be defined, conversely, as 

 one in which the general arrangement brings out the high- 

 est beauty of each detail. 



The most cursory examination of any American town or 

 summer colony of villas will show how deficient we are in 

 artistic feeling when we deal with natural objects. The 

 surroundings of our homes have improved by no means as 

 rapidly as the homes themselves. Even in these we are 

 far enough from having reached a general average of ex- 

 cellence. But we are on the right road, I think, towards 

 its attainment. We have learned certain architectural 

 truths, and we respect them theoretically, even though we 

 may often err in their application. We do not expect to 

 build a good house without an architect to help us ; we do 

 not expect him to begin without having a clear idea of the 

 kind of house we want — of the special site it must occupy, 

 the special needs it must fulfil, the special tastes it must 

 meet ; we are not content if he designs it by throwing to- 

 gether a number of pretty features without regard to har- 

 mony of effect ; nor do we buy our furniture bit by bit as 



