t82 



Garden and Forest. 



[June 13, i888. 



ACCORDING to the English papers an extraordinary 

 piece of tree planting has been undertaken in Wales. 

 On the side of Moel Rhiwen mountain a loyal enthu- 

 siast, Mr. Assheton Smith, is inscribing in letters formed 

 with trees, and each six hundred feet in length by twenty- 

 five feet in width, the words "Jubilee, 1887." The first 

 trees were planted with much ceremony on the Queen's 

 jubilee day ; 630,000 trees will be needed to complete the 

 giant inscription, and two hundred men are constantly 

 employed upon the work. It is not pleasant to think what 

 an amount of good planting might have been accomplished 

 if a different direction had been given to the expenditure of 

 all this energy and money, which now will go merely to 

 disfigure a whole country-side with a colossal monument 

 to wastefulness and bad taste. And, what is worse, so 

 liable is a modern nation to be led astray by any conspicu- 

 ous novelty, Mr. Smith may find many admirers, and, per- 

 haps, an imitator or two — a supposition justified in the fact 

 that no English journal which we have seen has uttered a 

 protest against his scheme. 



No planting as bad as this has yet been done in America, 

 and it is doubtful, perhaps, whether anything quite so bad 

 in disfiguring nature has ever been deliberately attempted 

 before anywhere. 



Tree-planted letters, however, are not a novelty. In 

 the hunting-park at Moritzburg, near Dresden, there may 

 still be seen the initials of a certain seventeenth-century 

 prince done in evergreen trees, clipped in such a way that 

 their height increases from the base to the top of the letters, 

 which are seen, therefore, as though laid on an inclined 

 plane. But these letters are only some thirty feet in length 

 and are hidden away in a corner of the park. When this 

 device was made, formal planting, the clipping of trees 

 and puerile gardening tricks of many sorts were in uni- 

 versal use ; and, placed as it was, it had at least the merit 

 of being unobtrusive. It has remained for the nineteenth 

 century, which prides itself upon a truer love for the 

 genuine beauties of nature, to disfigure a whole mountain- 

 side and a lovely landscape with a gigantic inscription 

 which can be read for miles. 



The Pine Barrens in May. 



IT is the last of May, and very late in the Pines. The 

 broad-leaved Laurel [Kaliiiia latifoUa) is only just be- 

 ginning to unfold its many-flowered corymbs of rose- 

 colored and white blossoms, making the waste places gay 

 and brilliant. And its small relative, the Sheep Laurel, is 

 opening its deep crimson-colored flowers. In some 

 places it has taken possession of the ground to the al- 

 most entire exclusion of other plants. 



The Stagger Bush {Andromeda Marianna) is in full bloom. 

 Although not as showy as the Laurel, yet its large clusters 

 of pure white, waxy-looking bells make it very attractive. 

 Another shrub of this genus, A. liguslrina, is also in flower, 

 as well as its near coneener, Lcucolho'c raceniosa, with lonir 

 one-sided racemes of white flowers. 



The Sand Myrtle {Leiophylhivi huxifolium), a little ever- 

 green shrub, with umbel-like clusters of flowers, is charm- 

 ing. The small petals are pure white, but the ten exserted 

 purple-pink stamens give it considerable color, while the 

 dark, shining leaves make an eflective background for the 

 flowers. In the more moist places Ilea Virginica is 

 abundant, and covered with racemes of small white flow- 

 ers. But the crowning beauty among these wild shrubs 

 is the Fringe-tree (Chiunanthus Virginica), which here and 

 there are so white with their graceful, drooping panicles 

 of flowers that at a little distance they look like snow- 

 banks. 



The heavy odor of the Swamp Magnolia proclaims its 

 presence on every side, and those who like the fragrance 

 are fortunate, as the flowers are very beautiful amid the 

 deep setting of the shining leaves. The Swamp Maple, 



growing alongside, is also pretty and effective with its 

 long, swaying pedicels and winged scarlet fruit. 



The Holly {Ilex opaca) is shedding its winter leaves, and 

 sending out new ones, which have not yet taken on the 

 glossy green that characterizes them later in the season. 

 The bright red berries are still scattered over some of the 

 trees, while the new shoots are full of clustered flowers, 

 giving promise of abundant berries for next Christmas time. 

 Its relative, the Ink-berry (/. glabra), is also in bloom, 

 while retaining its thick evergreen leaves and black ber- 

 ries. And another shrub of this genus, the Black Alder (/. 

 verlicillala), is likewise holding its bunches of scarlet berries 

 while being crowned with new leaves and flowers. 



In the distance I see great clumps of Mistletoe, and on 

 a near approach I find this, too, covered with flowers amidits 

 white berries. The flowers are greenish yellow, nearly the 

 color of the thick, persistent leaves. The Sweet Gum trees, 

 on which it has made its home, have a forlorn, prematurely 

 old look, as if they did not enjoy the burden imposed upon 

 them. The Shad-bush {Amelanchier Canadensis, var. ob- 

 longifolia), together with most of the Blueberries, are nearly 

 out of bloom, and forming fruit for a plenteous harvest. 



Many of the herbaceous plants are now in the first flush 

 of beauty. Among the most notable is Xerophyllum 

 aspliodeloides, which sends up from a thick tuft of evergreen, 

 grass-like leaves, from one to eight or ten flower stems, 

 surmounted at the top with a compact raceme of beautiful 

 white flowers. The Pitcher-plant is also unfolding its 

 singular deep purple flowers, and its strange, pitcher-shaped 

 leaves have withstood the frost of winter, and are still fresh 

 and bright. 



The Pine Barrens also nourish some lovely Orchids. 

 The delicate Arethusa bulbosa is now in bloom, and the low 

 Moccasin flower {Cy pripedium acaule), and these will be 

 succeeded by other species until frost comes in the fall. 



And here, too, I find the pretty little Star-flower {Trientalis 

 Americana^, with its pure white stars standing above the 

 whorl of pretty leaves. It is called a northern plant, 

 whose habitat is cold damp woods, but here it is fresh and 

 vigorous, with stems bearing three and sometimes four 

 flowers. The slender Blue Flag (/r/s Virginica), with leaves 

 no wider than some of the grasses and sedges that surround 

 it, is just beginning to open its fine, delicately formed 

 flowers. And the little heath-like Hudsonia tonie^iiosa is 

 thick in the more sandy places — scarcely allowing room 

 to step — and is covered all over with bright yellow flowers, 

 that are too pretty to crush with the foot. And here is the 

 Cucumber-root {Medeola Virginica), the stem clothed with 

 white wool, and bearing two whorls of leaves, and 

 just beneath the upper one small recurved purple 

 flowers. 



Most of tire plants herein mentioned can be easily culti- 

 vated. I have a nook in my garden devoted to them, where 

 they are growing finely. One side of the bed is bordered with 

 Xerophyllum, which blooms freely. One plant has eight 

 flower stems, others four and five, making a beautiful 

 display. The Pitcher-plant also does well in an artificial 

 swamp — five flowers on one plant. This, and other bog 

 plants, are more beautiful here than in the wild swamps, 

 as they never suffer from drought as they often do in the 

 shallow bogs — the home of their birth. Mary Treat. 



May 30th. 



Suggestions for tire Improvement of Cemeteries. 



WE shall be able, perhaps, to realize more quickly 

 and clearly the direction in which to seek for im- 

 provement in cemeteries by following a more practical 

 and out-of-doors method of investigation than by consult- 

 ing an art-library. Let us, then, consider the simplest 

 possible example and see what suggestions it may offer 

 for our guidance in more complex and more extensive 

 cases. 



Some of us, perhaps, may remember to have seen a 

 cluster of many family graves in an uncultivated nook 



