April h, 



8.] 



Garden and Forest. 



75 



and never be an}^ credit to their g-rower, the nurseryman. 

 The owner of a suburban lot or of a country-seat reads the 

 descriptions in a catalogue and writes an order, perhaps for 

 several hundred dollars' worth of plants. Some day the stock 

 arrives, and the owner and his gardener, or perhaps a ' ' land- 

 scape gardener" from the nursery, proceed forthwith to plant- 

 ing. The result may be seen in the suburbs of every city and 

 in many country estates. Everywhere are nursery novelties 

 indiscriminately scattered among native wood and shrub- 

 bery, or dotted as single specimens all over the lawns. 

 Even as specimens the plants are seldom arranged with 

 good effect. The whole method of procedure is wrong. 

 The fault is not the gardeners, for the most accomplished 

 artist could render small service, if he were called on only 

 after the plants had been delivered on the ground. 



The designing of plantations, large or small, calls for the 

 best skill of the real landscape gardener. They should be 

 made to harmonize with the existing natural features of the 

 ground ; they should not destroy, but should, if possible, 

 emphasize its natural character. Even for suburban lots, 

 their proper planning- requires much knowledge of the 

 nature of plants, much imagination, and much careful 

 preliminary study upon paper. It is safe to say that the 

 nurseryman who secures many orders from professional 

 landscape gardeners, or who persuades his customers to 

 make or get planting-plans in advance, will possess a more 

 comfortable mind and conscience, and will find himself 

 far better advertised by his plants, than his rivals. 



Senator Vest's bill providing, among other things, for ine 

 e.xtension of the boundaries of Yellowstone Park towards 

 the south and east, is one which should be promptly 

 passed. The enlargement will include the western slope of 

 the Absaroka Range, with the timber land at the sources 

 of the mountain streams flowing into the park, as well as 

 those which flow eastward into the Big Horn. This pro- 

 posed addition to the park is so rugged in surface that it 

 can never be subdued to agricultural use, and from its geo- 

 logical formation it is safe to pronounce it utterly barren of 

 mineral wealth. But as a part of this great natural reservoir 

 where waters are stored to find their way to both oceans, the 

 forest here is of incalculable value. Not only will these 

 coniferous woods restrain the melting snows of winter, but 

 here, unlike most of the liocky Mountain region, aresummer 

 rains to be husbanded as well. Many of the streams which 

 receive part of their supply from this region can be used for 

 purposes of irrigation, and upon this will depend the suc- 

 cess or failure of agriculture for thousands of square miles. 

 This is only one of many areas along the Rocky Mountains 

 which should be set apart as forest-land forever, but from 

 its connection with the Park it is a promising place to begin. 

 There should be little difficulty in passing Senator Vest's 

 bill. 



It does not seem as though taste in the arrangement of 

 flowers was at a very high level in this country, when we 

 read the following paragraph, descriptive of a construction 

 that was exhibited in a Western city not long ago : " Upon 

 an easel of Cat-tails a velvet plaque rested. The latter was 

 decorated with a cluster of Roses, and at one side, resting 

 upon a branch of Holly, was a little owl made of Violets 

 and natural enough looking to fly away. Beneath was a 

 nest full of eggs." But reading it quoted with approval 

 unHer the heading, "Another Pretty Thing," in a late num- 

 ber of a prominent English horticultural journal, we are 

 somewhat consoled by the thought that if our taste is bad, 

 it is no worse than that of the rest of the world. 



It is proposed by French horticulturalists to erect a mon- 

 ument over the grave of Lacharme, the famous cultivator 

 of Roses. The Viennese Illustririe Garten Zeiiung suggests 

 that lovers of Roses in other countries should contribute 

 towards the monument, and names M. Bernaix, 63 Cours 

 Lafayette, at Villeurbanne-Lyon, in France, as the person 

 to whom remittances may be made. 



Landscape Gardening. — VII. 



IF, as I have said, we look at any American town where 

 homes of the better class are isolated in their own 

 grounds, we must confess that thej'^ do not prove us as far 

 advanced in the art of gardening as \ve are in certain other 

 arts. Few villa-lots in any neighborhood show that the 

 first requisite of a good effect has been considered — com- 

 position. Little regard is usually paid to the harmonious 

 arrangement of contrasting forms, and still less, I may now 

 add, to the harmonious arrangement of contrasting colors. 



I do not propose to discuss the intrinsic excellence of 

 that popular kind of gardening which is known as "bed- 

 ding out," as "ribbon " or " pattern gardening. " There 

 are many who would almost invariably prefer to it some 

 more natural disposition of bright-flowered or bright-leaved 

 plants — something more like nature's own floral arrange- 

 ments or like those of our grandmothers' days. But, given 

 the fact that solid, bright-hued pattern beds may be intrin- 

 sically beautiful, how often do we see them used in a way 

 which suggests the desiie to make them part and parcel of 

 a beautiful general scheme, and how often is that nice feel- 

 ing for color which we are so fond of exercising inside our 

 homes displa3red in choosing and assorting the plants which 

 compose them 1 The beds we most often see are ugly in 

 shape, garish in their contrasts of tint, and disposed with- 

 out due regard to anything around them. A man who 

 would not for worlds hang a chromo on his carefully tinted 

 parlor wall, contentedly puts chromos in Coleus and Gera- 

 nium in the middle of a lawn the strong green tone of which 

 throws their gaudiness into high relief. 



If, now, we look at our larger countrjr-seats and parks we 

 find more palpable evidence of good taste. We have some 

 admirable landscape gardeners in America, and, naturally, 

 they are more often asked to manage large problems than 

 small ones. But as yet they are not asked nearly often 

 enough ; and even when asked their counsels are not al- 

 ways respected. They may be allowed to lay out the 

 grounds as they wish, but when once their backs^are turned, 

 how quick is the owner to retouch — and spoil — their work! 

 How seldom does he ask himself what it was that his land- 

 scape gardener really wanted to do — what was the general 

 effect he wanted to produce, — and then address himself to 

 developing and preserving it ! How seldom do we see any 

 ]-)lace, great or small, of which we can say, There is every- 

 thing here that the eye desires— there is nothing that it 

 coufd wish away ! How surprised would almost any pro- 

 prietor be, did we venture to criticise the view from his 

 window upon the same principles that we should apply to 

 a painting on his walls ; and yet, unless it will stand such 

 criticism, it is not what he has wished to make it. 



Of course, only an experienced and capable artist can 

 arrange any extensive gardening scheme with success. 

 And even the smallest scheme is likely to be more success- 

 fully planned and more rapidly perfected under an artist's 

 eye. Yet even if his help is unattainable there is no reason 

 why we should resignedly fall back upon haphazard ways 

 of working. Any man can try to work in an artistic spirit, 

 even if he cannot rival an artist's skill in execution. That 

 is to say, no result made up of various elements — even if 

 those elements be the very fewest in number — can be good 

 which is not good as a whole ; to make it good as a whole 

 ^\■e must begin by having a clear idea of what sort of a 

 whole we want ; and to begin with such an idea is to work 

 in an artistic spirit, no matter how well or poorly we suc- 

 ceed in giving it beautiful expression. The scheme is the 

 main pouTt — the scheme and the will to stick to it and not 

 be tempted by the beauty of individual things into frittering 

 away or confusing its effect. 



Is'it needful to say that working in this spirit we should 

 not only work to better eventual effect, but with greater 

 pleasure at the moment.? To have some appropriate and 

 charming little picture in our minds which we want to 

 realize ; to dispose our ground, and to choose and ])lace 

 our plants, with the requirements of this picture before us— 



