98 



Garden and Forest. 



[April 25, i888- 



Wr. John Robinson, as has already been explained in an 

 earlier issue of this paper, has very wisely suggested that 

 we must first have a forest school in this country modeled 

 on the plan of the Military Academy, before we can hope 

 to have forest officers thoroughly trained in all the difficult 

 technicalities of forest management, or an efficient forest 

 administration. The men will appear, no doubt, to man- 

 age the forests, when the Government decides to protect 

 them, and they will manage them badly at first, and then 

 in time very well, but no general forest policy is complete or 

 adequate to accomplish the ends in view without some pro- 

 visions for training forest officers, any more than a law to 

 establish a standing army could be complete without pro- 

 visions for training its officers. 



It is true that many investigations are yet to be made upon 

 the position, the extent and the character of our western 

 forests before enough is known about them to locate properly 

 forest reserves, or to organize an effective system of forest 

 administration ; but some beginning must be made. If 

 this measure fails it might be well if all friends of the forest 

 would unite in an effort to secure from Congress the 

 withdrawal of the whole forest-covered public domain 

 from sale and entry, with adequate temporary measures for 

 its strict protection, and the appointment of some com- 

 petent body, selected for example from the National Acad- 

 emy of Sciences, to study the whole question in all its com- 

 plex bearings and to recommend some comprehensive 

 scheme of forest administration. There could be no op- 

 position to such a bill except on the part of those who 

 prey on the public forests. Such a measure might 

 diminish at once many of the dangers which now threaten 

 to exterminate the western forests, and it would cause 

 the subject to be studied and discussed in a manner which 

 would compel Congress eventually to establish a perma- 

 nent forest administration in this country. But whatever 

 method is adopted one thing is clear, that unless Congress 

 does something and does it quickly, there will be very 

 little forest left in western North America, and the future 

 of all that part of the Continent will be irretrievably ruined. 



Flowers in Winter. 



THE skill of American gardeners in growing flowers 

 for winter cutting, and the lavishness of the Ameri- 

 can public in buying them, strike every visitor to our 

 large towns. In no other country are flowers — espe- 

 cially Roses — forced in such perfection or profusion, and 

 in none are they used in such quantities, not only on all 

 social occasions, but for the daily adornment of the draw- 

 ing-room and dining-room. 



It is hard to say whether our passion for cut flowers 

 reveals a love for nature or simply a love for beauty in 

 general. But it certainly is not, as some would have us 

 believe, a mere fashionable craze, with no more respectable 

 foimdation than extravagance and the desire for display. 

 Fashion's freaks do not last for generations, and grow 

 stronger and stronger in their influence year by j^ear. But 

 our love for cut flowers in winter has thus lasted and grown. 

 A few years ago fashion certainly played a large part in 

 determining the uses to which we put such flowers. No 

 lady was content to appear in a place of public amuse- 

 ment without an immense bunch of flowers in her belt, and 

 few were content to take their afternoon stroll unless simi- 

 larly adorned. The request that no flowers may be sent 

 which even now often follows a funeral announcement in 

 the papers — though not so often now as a few years since 

 — is an unmistakable sign that a custom which, when 

 not carried to excess, is among the most beautiful and 

 touching of modern times, had been carried to excess — 

 had become a fashion that was felt as a tax upon the 

 friendship of the giver and a burden upon the conscience 

 of the recipient. And so" strong for a while was the feel- 

 ing that a lady could not go to an opera or a ball without 

 bearing costly tokens of the regard of her friends, that 



young men of moderate means were almost driven out of 

 social life and the florist's bill came to rival the tailor's as a 

 synonym for one of the worst terrors of city existence. 



But all these things have changed of late ; and in the 

 change we may read signs of our growth in a real love for 

 flowers, as well as in good taste and refinement of feeling. 

 For the florist's trade has certainly not suffered in conse- 

 quence of the fact that we use flowers less for the purposes 

 of a display than in years gone by. If we do not buy so 

 many flowers to give away in a semi-obligatory manner, 

 we buy more for ourselves ; and if we do not carry them 

 about so much in public, we care more to have them with 

 us in our rooms. Many of us can remember when a lady 

 often placed her baskets of flowers in her front window, 

 between the curtains and the glass — sacrificmg her own 



enjoyment so that every one else might 



}{ her good 



fortune. Such vulgarities no longer offend the sight, but 

 behind the curtains there are more flowers and lovelier 

 ones than there ever were before. 



The increase in the variety of flowers which we now 

 force for winter use, and the simple character of many of 

 them, also prove our advance in the right direction. 

 Thirty years ago the Camellia ruled almost alone in our 

 drawing-rooms. Then Roses began to come into favor, 

 but they were as inferior to those of to-da)' in quality as 

 they were in variety. It is scarcely twenty years since 

 the most beautiful and fragrant of the other flowers we 

 now demand were introduced into the winter trade — the 

 Hyacinths and Lilies-of-the-Valley, the Daffodils and Nar- 

 cissus and Tulips, which may now be bought any day in 

 the winter for a few pence at any street corner, bringing 

 into humble homes the loveliness which in former years 

 was a luxury for the rich alone. The first bouquet of 

 Lilies-of-the-Valley which was seen in a New York ball- 

 room — some twenty years ago — was the talk of the 

 town for days, and the florist who had grown the few 

 sprays which composed it, and the young man who had 

 bespoken them long in advance of their blooming, were 

 looked upon as marvels of inventiveness and enterprise. 

 These blossoms and their fellows had before that time 

 been considered " common garden flowers, " unworthy of 

 a place in a florist's window or a lady's hand when winter 

 made their acquisition difficult. But one experience of 

 their charm among the time-honored favorites of the 

 drawing-room, gained a place for them in popular affec- 

 tion, which has enlarged itself year by year. More recently 

 other "common garden flowers" ha^'e likewise come to 

 rank as winter favorites — Lilacs, for example, and the 

 Mignonette, Forget-me-nots and Chrysanthemums ; and 

 we believe that even the growing fancy for Orchids — a 

 fancy inspired as often by the fact that they are rare and 

 singular, as by the fact that they are beautiful — will not 

 drive into even temporary retreat the simpler, cheaper 

 flowers, which prove that our love for natural beauty 

 is a healthy and a steadily developing sentiment. 



A Plantation for Winter. 



THE value of some deciduous shrubs with regard to 

 their winter beauty is hardly appreciated. V^'e 

 think much of the flowers and foliage of our shrubs, little 

 of the brightness and persistency of their fruit, or of the 

 color which their twigs retain when their leaves have fall- 

 en. Yet the number of such plants which are decorative 

 throughout the whole or a part of the winter is considera- 

 ble. The finest and most beautiful is the Cockspur Thorn, 

 a small and graceful tree which can be used as the centre 

 of a winter group. Its large dark-red fruit is borne m great 

 profusion, and remains conspicuous in the whiter land- 

 scape until the days of early spring. Among smaller plants 

 the common Barberry is the most valuable for winter 

 plantuig. Its habit is graceful and its drooping racemes 

 of fruit are brilliant objects throughout the entire winter. 

 Less pleasing in habit but with fruit equally persistent and 

 even brighter in color is Thunberg's Japanese Barberry. 



