June 20, 188S.] 



Garden and Forest. 



193 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY IIV 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Okfich : Tribune Building, Nkw York, 



Conducted by Professor C. S. Sargent. 



ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POST OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. Y. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 20, 188S. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



TACF.. 



EuiTORiAi, Akticles ! — Tlie Asr.ociation of American Nurseryriifii. — Walks 



and Drives. — Note .' 193 



The Cultivation of Truffles Pro/esaor If. G. Fat-toiv. 194 



The Domestication of Wild Fruits E. S. Goff 195 



New or Little Known Plants : — Pitcairnia Jaiiscana (with illustration), 



Scrcno Watson. 195 



Cypripediuin bellatuluni 196 



Plant Nq-i-ks : — Prnnns pendula {with illustration) C. S. S. ig6 



Syrinj3;a vulgaris C. S. S. 196 



Cultural Department: — Thinning Fruits E. Williavts. 197 



Lantanas — Newly Transplanted Trees — Why Vines Winter-kill iq8 



Notes from the Rock Garden C 



Notes from the Arnold Arboretum J, 



The Forest : — Forest Tree Planting on the Prairies Robert Douglas. 202 



Correspondence; — Northern Range of the Western Service-berry. 



George M. Da7uso'i. 202 



Recent Publications 203 



Recent Plant Poutkaits 204 



Notes 204 



Retail Flower Maickets : — New Yorlc, Pliiladelphia, Boston 204 



Illustrations : — Pitcairnia Jaiiscana, Fig. 35 197 



Primus pendula, Fig. 36 198 



Prunus Miqueliana (?), Fig. 37 199 



199 

 200 



The Association of American Nurserymen. 



THE nurserymen of the world have played such an 

 important part in the general advancement of horti- 

 culture, that all planters and lovers of plants have some- 

 thing akin to a personal interest in their prosperity. That 

 our parks and gardens have been enriched with such a 

 variety of beautiful plants from all quarters of the globe is 

 largely due not only to the business enterprise of nursery- 

 men, but also to their intelligence and skill, and, we may 

 add, to their enthusiastic, self-denying and too often 

 unappreciated devotion to the cause of horticulture. We 

 are sometimes inclined to criticise the glowing descriptions 

 and highly colored pictures of novelties in the trade cata- 

 logues, but, on the other hand, these same catalogues 

 must take rank among the most effective means of dis- 

 seminating information of practical value concerning trees 

 and shrubs and fruits and flowers. It is to the trial 

 grounds of the great nurseries, more than to any other 

 place, that planters have been obliged to turn for object 

 lessons in cultivation and for instruction as to the hardiness, 

 the beauty and the distinctive characteristics of trees and 

 plants for the forest, the orchard and the garden. This 

 means not only that nurserymen must be depended on for 

 the material used in landscape gardening, forestry and fruit 

 growing, but that a good share of our knowledge of these 

 subjects has been derived from their studies and labors. 



All persons, therefore, who take any interest in gardens 

 or forests cannot but hope that the annual meeting of the 

 Nurserymen's Association, to be held this week at Detroit, 

 will prove successful in point of attendance and in the 

 value of its deliberations. A large proportion of the sub- 

 jects considered will be distinctively of a business char- 

 acter, but even these may benefit every tree-buyer It 

 was concerted action at a former meeting which effected 

 the just reduction of freight rates for nursery slock, 

 which is a direct advantage to every planter. Much re- 

 mains to be done towards insuring such stock in trans- 

 port against disastrous delays and exposure and towards 

 holding railroad and express companies responsible for 

 safe and speedy delivery, and this subject will, no doubt, 



command the attention of the meeting. But perhaps the 

 greatest benefit derived from these gatherings is found in 

 the interchange of personal experience among the mem- 

 bers. Very often papers of real and permanent value are 

 read and published in the reports of the association. 

 But the discussions which follow the reading of these 

 papers are generally of more importance still, having a 

 freshness of suggestion and a dii-ectness of aim which 

 are never so manifest elsewhere as in the flashes which 

 come from the contact of alert minds in friendly argu- 

 ment. Fortunately, there are no secrets in American 

 nursery practice and no attempt at concealment interferes 

 with the mutual improvement which comes from this 

 reciprocity of ideas, and in this way the garnered experi- 

 ence of individuals in every part of the country becomes 

 the common property of all. 



Conventions of nurserymen and florists would be well 

 worth attending for this single purpose, even if they were 

 not made attractive by pleasant social features, by oppor- 

 tunities for enlarging acquaintance, by offering a timely 

 period of recreation after the busy season has passed. No 

 doubt they will prove more useful still in many direc- 

 tions as they become more thoroughly organized. They 

 might render good service to horticulture by a systematic 

 effort to secure uniform and correct nomenclature of trees 

 and shrubs. It would be directly in the line of their labors 

 to devise some plan for the better classification of cultural 

 varieties of the different fruits and some comprehensive 

 system for describing and identifying them. They might 

 collect data from various stations in the country as to 

 what fruit and ornamental trees are reliable in different 

 sections and what ones are likely to fail. Indeed, there are 

 fields without number towards which they can direct united 

 effort, and so many skilled cultivators scattered over so 

 wide a territory and working for a single purpose could 

 hardly fail to accomplish results of lasting importance to 

 horticulture or pomology. 



Walks and Drives. 



THE walks and drives play an important part in deter- 

 mining the effect produced by villa-grounds and coun - 

 try places. Whether composed of gravel, asphalt or simply 

 of earth, they form wide lines, distinct from their surround- 

 ings in color and texture, dravim through lawns and shrub- 

 beries. As such they are conspicuous features : they are 

 features, however, which have no real beauty in them- 

 selves , and, therefore, they should be used with care and 

 discretion. 



It is desirable to limit them as much as possible — to make 

 them neither more numerous, nor wider, nor longer than 

 necessary. Too often we see in small places a walk 

 almost wide enough for a drive, and a drive almost wide 

 enough for a ])ark-way ; a drive where a walk would have 

 served every purpose, or walks which serve no purpose at 

 all. It is no infrequent thing to find, instead of a fine 

 stretch of lawn, an assemblage of winding paths, leading 

 nowhere except back to the houses again, with small 

 scraps of turf between them. Unity of effect is ruined by 

 such an arrangement and no practical end is served. If 

 for any reason the borders of the lawn are often visited, the 

 turf itself may be walked on, for, unless exactly the same 

 track is perpetually followed, a great deal of walking M'ill 

 not injure it. And if it is objected that the circling paths 

 give access to the flower-beds with which they are bor- 

 dered, the answer must be that the flower-beds are as much 

 out of place upon a lawn as the paths themselves. Of 

 course in a flower garden it is different. There the beds 

 and the walks leading to them are the main concern, and 

 whatever grass exists may rightly be subordinated to them. 

 But if it is desired that turf shall preponderate in the effect, 

 then the less it is cut up and disturbed the better There 

 is nothing more beautiful in itself, and nothing which 

 gives so marked an expression of size, unity and restful- 

 ness to a place as a wide sweep of lawn. In the majority 

 of cases it is better worth striving for than anything else ; 



