136 



Garden and Forest. 



[May 16, li 



Jl 



A Well-arranged Flower Border. 



'HE illustration we publisli on page 137 shows another portion 

 of the artificially formed pond, on a country place near Bos- 

 ton, which was pictured and described in the first number of 

 Garden and Forest. The point to which we would now call 

 particular attention is the flower border in the foreground, 

 which extends much further to the spectator's left than the 

 photographer was al:>le to follow it, skirting the edge of the 

 pond for a considerable distance. 



In the earlier weclvs of June this border offers a splendid 

 sight and fills the air with a delicious fragrance ; for then the 

 hardy Azaleas, with which it is chiefly planted, are in bloom, 

 showing many tints of orange, yellow, pink and white, which 

 contrast and blend with each other in a way that might well 

 tempt an artist's brush.* Yet this is not the only season when 

 this border is beautiful and fragrant ; for it has been planted 

 so that a succession of flowers follow one another throughout 

 the entire summer. Among the Azaleas hundreds of bulbs 

 have been planted, which bloom in spring when the foliage of 

 the Azaleas is sfiU thin and delicate enough to permit their 

 lowlier loveliness to appear ; and the border of the pond is 

 fringed with the great peltate California Sa.xifrage, the tall 

 flower-spikes of which — two feet in height — appear in very 

 early spring before the big, broad leaves e.xpand. Then, rising 

 well above the Azaleas, are groups of Lilies, pleasing to the eye 

 in their slim, though flowerless, grace, even in the earlier 

 weeks of summer, and ready to bring forth their flowers when 

 the Azaleas have done blooming. 'The tall spikes which are 

 conspicuous in the immediate foreground belong to the finest 

 of our native Lilies — the Turk's Cap Lily {Liliiim siiperbuin). 

 The dark clump further in the distance is a clump of the L. 

 unihellatum of Japan ; and the Japanese L. laiicifolium, with its 

 spotted blossoms, is also represented, as well as the white 

 Japanese and the common Tiger Lily. Nor are these all 

 "the plants which mingle in this border. When the Azaleas are 

 in bloom blue and yellow Irises are also in bloom along the 

 water's edge ; in August the delicate blossoms of the Sabbatia 

 appear profusely ; and in autumn days there is the Cardinal 

 Flower and the Galtonia, with its tall spikes of white, bell- 

 shaped. Hyacinth-like blossoms. 



It is needless, we believe, to explain the superiority of plant- 

 ing of this sort to that most commonly seen. What is 

 most often seen is a border filled with one kind of flower 

 alone, or if with a succession of flowers, one that involves con- 

 tinual transplanlings and rearrangements. But here, by a wise 

 choice of materials, the border is enabled to take care of itself 

 from one end of summer to the other. Here there is no 

 need to dig up the bulbs when they have flowered, under 

 penalty of a dreary display of withering leaves ; they mav 

 be left to mature in peace against another season, the decay 

 of their leaves being hidden by the luxuriance of the other 

 plants. It is the same with the Lilies ; and as none of the 

 plants selected require protection in winter, the border renews 

 its beauty summer after summer, and week by week during 

 each summer, with but little care from man. 



A word may be added with regard to the meadow that forms 

 the distance in our picture. Its clumps of trees have been 

 carefully arranged, but the grass is left to grow long, and, 

 filled with Buttercups and Daisies, makes a soft and harmo- 

 nious Iiackground for the brilliant border as we approach it, 

 and is in happy contrast with the carefully kept la-vns on the 

 other side of the pond near the house. 



children, of birds and beasts, of hills and streams, and trees 

 and flowers; with the changes of night and day, evening and 

 morning, summer and winter; and all their unwearied actions 

 and energies, as benign in the spirit that animates them, as 

 they are beautiful and grand in that form and clothing which 

 is given to them for the delight of our senses." 



Wordsworth. — Letter to Bcatinwnt. 



'Laying out grounds, as it is called, may be considered as a 

 liberal art, in some sort like poetry and painting; and its object, 

 like that of all the liberal arts, is, or ought to be, to move the 

 affections under the control of good sense ; that is, of the best 

 and wisest. Speaking with more precision, it is to assist 

 Nature in moving the affections, and surely, as I have said, 

 the affections of those who have the deepest perception of the 

 beauty of Nature, who have the most valuable feelings — that 

 is, the most permanent, the most independent, the most en- 

 nobling, connected with Nature and human life. No liberal 

 art aims merely at the gratification of an individual or a class; 

 the painter or poet is degraded in proportion as he does so; 

 the true servants of the Arts pay homage to the human kind 

 as impersonated in un warped and enlightened minds. If tin's 

 be so when we are merely putting together words or colors, 

 how much more ought the feeling to prevail when we are in 

 the midst of the realities of things; of the beauty and harmony, 

 of the joy and happiness of living creatures ; of men and 



* An article in Garden .xnd Forest, March 21st, 188S, speaks of the most valuable 

 varieties of hardy Azaleas and of their needs in cultivation. 



Foreign Correspondence. 



The Kew Arboretum. — IV. 



THE genus Quercus is represented in the Kew Arbore- 

 tum by upwards of two hundred species and named 

 varieties. The common British Oak {Q. pedtincidata) heads 

 the list as far as variability is concerned, with about forty- 

 five forms ; of the other segregate of the Linnean Q. Robur 

 ( Q. sessiliflora) we have about a dozen. In a wild state 

 the latter is much the rarer of the tw-o, both in Britain, and, 

 apparently, on the continent of Europe as well. Judging 

 from the evidence afforded by trees found deep down in 

 peat bogs, etc., in various widely sejiarated localities, Q. 

 sessiliflora was at one time a much more common tree ; at 

 present, circumstances seem to point conclusively to the 

 fact that the species is in reality dying out I use the word 

 species advisedly, for the general aspect of the typical 

 plant is so different from that of Q. pedutiailata, that the 

 two may be readily recognized, when growing together, 

 even at a distance. Besides for arboricultural purposes, 

 and to avoid too cumbrous a nomenclature, it is better to 

 treat the two as distinct. 



There are some half a hundred American Oaks — many, 

 of course, forms which have originated under cultivation 

 — and among them tw-enty-two of the species enumerated 

 by Professor Sargent in his Catalogue of the Forest Trees of 

 North America. Llpwards of thirty hail from Asia and 

 about seventy from Europe and North Africa. The last 

 number of course includes the two British Oaks and their 

 forms mentioned at the beginning of this article. 



Remarkably fine examples of the Scarlet Oak {Q. coccined), 

 the Red Oak (Q. rubra) and the Willow Oak ((?. Phellos) 

 exist in different parts of the Arboretum, b,ut in common 

 with all the other American biennial-fruited Oaks, few bear 

 acorns, although the frees growlu.xuriantly and are perfect- 

 ly hardy. Of the Willow Oak I have never seen flo.^vers 

 produced at Kew ; the other two whose names are above 

 given flower annually but rarely ripen fruits ; the foliage, 

 however, as well as that of the Pin Oak {Q. pahistris), the 

 Yellow-barked Oak (Q. linctoria), the Shingle or Laurel 

 Oak ( Q. iiiihricaria), assumesgenerally a brilliant color before 

 the fall, and so enables non-traveled tree-lovers to form 

 some idea of the brilliant effects described so enthusiasti- 

 cally by vi'riters familiar with the forests of the United 

 States. The whole group of the White Oaks is unsatisfac- 

 tory at Kew, and so far as I have been able to ascertain 

 froin personal inspection, on the continent of Europe as 

 \vell. Some conditions necessary for the trees are evident- 

 ly lacking, for all present a stunted, unhappy aspect. 



The Evergreen or Holm Oak ((?. Ilex), of Southern Europe, 

 thrives well and attains a large size ; during some winters 

 huge branches are broken off by the weight of snow. The 

 Live Oak {Q. vireiis) does not at present exist in the Kew 

 Arboretum, and plants so named, in other English estab- 

 lishments which I have had an opportunity of seeing, are 

 merely forms of the very variable Q. Ilex. Probably, how- 

 ever, the Virginian Live Oak may be growing in the South- 

 west of England. One of the most handsome of the 

 European Oaks is Q. conferta, or, as it is usually called in 

 gardens and nurseries, Q. Pannonica. This is a native of 

 Servia, Croatia, Transylvania, etc., and in Kotschy's magnifi- 

 cent work, "Die Eichen Europas nnd des Orie7its,'' he tells 

 us that its timber is very durable, woodwork of it found in 

 the Transylvanian mines which have not been worked 

 since Roman times presenting the appearance, notwith- 

 standing its great age, of newly-felled timber. In a 



