2o8 



Garden and Forest. 



[JUNF, 27, 



little to read them. It seems a lapse from perfect justice 

 — or, should I say, from perfect taste? — to speak of par- 

 terres, even metaphorical, verbal parterres, in connection 

 with the man who did so much to free gardening from the 

 fetters of formality, to "call in the country," and vary 

 "shade from shade." 



I would not be understood as implying that Pope fought 

 quite alone his crusade against formality in gardening. 

 A hundred years before his time Bacon preached the vir- 

 tues of a more sympathetic treatment of nature, and 

 Milton sang the charms of a great natural garden. And 

 in his own generation, Addison fought valiantly at his 

 side. But it was only in the century of Addison and 

 Pope that words bore fruit in actual deeds ; and it is 

 doubtful whether any single influence was as potent as 

 Pope's in the matter. If we cannot quote the last line of 

 his 1^'indsor Fores/, 



First in these fields I sung the sylvan strains, 



and make it apply with literal truth to gardening in 

 England, we can say, at least, that he sang the sylvan 

 strain more convincingly than had any one before him. 



A date or two in conclusion may be of interest. Addi- 

 son's Descrrplion of a Garden in flie A'a/iiral Style was 

 published in 1712, Pope's Verdant Sculpture in 1713, and 

 his Epistle to Lord Burlington in 1731, while the first 

 professional treatise on the natural style of gardening — 

 Whateley's — did not ajipear until 1770. 



I\I. G. Tan. 7\eiisscliKr. 



A Well Planted Village Street. 



IT is not always that a village street makes a pleasing 

 picture, but the impulse of any artist \vho might 

 chance for the first time to face the leafy vista from which 

 our illustration (page 209) is taken would be to make a 

 sketch of it. And yet the elements of this picture are of 

 the simplest and most natural character. We can con- 

 ceive of a street which would be attractive on account of 

 the well planted and well kept lawns on either side, with 

 road borders straight and trim. But here the lawns form 

 no feature ot importance, and the problenx of how much 

 space shall be devoted to wheelway and foot-path is left 

 to settle itself in the most practical and natural way, as 

 the feet and wheels themselves may dictate. The paths 

 are therefore laid just where they are most convenient, 

 and certainly the flowing curves which mark the bound- 

 ary between grass and gravel are more beautiful than any 

 straight line could be, while they do not demand the fre- 

 quent labor of cutting the sod and raking over the road- 

 way, which are necessary when a formal border is 

 neatly kept. The Dandelions in the grass bear witness 

 that the lawn-mower is not used to destroy all the wild 

 flowers, and these in their season add to the natural and 

 rural charm of the- street. The brightness of a bit of sky 

 seen beneath the overarching limbs of trees which frame it 

 in always adds a tone of cheerfulness to such a vista, and 

 the sunshine which here sifts through the foliage on either 

 hand forbids any thought of gloominess in the dwellings 

 which a too dense shade invariably suggests. Altogether, 

 this street picture has a balance and harmony which 

 would not probably characterize one composed of various 

 border plantations made in accordance with the individual 

 tastes of different land-owners, and it is, therefore, pleas- 

 antly suggestive of a community of interest in the street 

 and its beauty — a suggestion emphasized by the public 

 well which stands for neighborliness and sociability. 



It would not be wise nor practicable for any other town 

 or village to imitate this e.xample in detail. But no serious 

 offense against the canons of good taste can be com- 

 mitted where a village street is so planted that it makes a 

 complete picture — a picture as peaceful and natural as the 

 one here presented, and with such unity of motive that 

 no contradictions or incongruities are apparent. 



Foreign Correspondence. 

 Notes on New Orchids. 



SOME beautiful novelties in Orchids have been shown 

 during the past week or two at the Royal Horticul- 

 tural Society's exhibitions. One has excited unusual in- 

 terest, being a new Cypripedium, a genus which is now so 

 fashionable. It is a very near relative of the now well- 

 known C. Godcfroyce, which was introduced a few years 

 ago from Cochin China, and is called C. bellatuluin* It 

 appears to be a free bloomer, as the plants exhibited on 

 Tuesday last had several spikes, although they had not 

 been out of the packing-case many days. Messrs. Low, 

 the vi'ell-knowa Orchid importers at Clifton, are the in- 

 troducers, and it is thought that they have made a hit in 

 importing the plant in such health. All orchidists know 

 and admire C. Gode/z-oyLS, and the new plant being so much 

 superior, it will, without doubt, prove popular. 



Disa raceniosa {D. secunda) was also shown for the 

 first time on Tuesday. It is not a new plant to botan- 

 ists, having been discovered many years ago in south 

 Africa, but this is the first time it has flowered in culti- 

 vation. In growth and foliage it can hardly be distin- 

 guished from Disa grajidijiora — the Flower of the Gods — 

 but in flower it is very different. It has erect spikes 

 rising about eighteen inches high, and on the upper parts 

 of these are loosely arranged the flowers, each being 

 about two inches across; in shape resembling those of 

 D. grandiflora, but in color of a deep rose-pink, or, as 

 some describe it, rosy-crimson, a color pleasing to every 

 one and not common among Orchids. The plant is as 

 easily grown as D. grainiijlora, requiring an atmosphere 

 cool and moist and partial shade. Some fine plants of it 

 are now in flower in the Royal Gardens, Kew, the 

 plants having been collected in south Africa by the 

 assistant curator, I\Ir. Watson, when traveling in that 

 region. No doubt the enterprising collectors of America 

 will soon have it, as it is already in the trade. 



A grand new Cattleya, a variety of C. JMendelli, was the 

 admiration of all who visited the Exhibition of the Royal 

 Horticultural Society in the Temple Gardens. This Cat- 

 tleya was called Rothschildiana, in compliment to the 

 great patron of Orchids. It is impossible to describe 

 the distinguishing points of the flower, but it is one of the 

 largest flowered forms of C. Mendelli I have ever seen, with 

 broader sepals and a very ample lip with a lobe almost 

 circular. The color, however, was its greatest charm, 

 being so soft and delicate, the sepals being of one tint, the 

 lip of another, and exquisitely frilled and margined with 

 the deepest tint of all. It came from the St. Albans' Orchid 

 nursery. 



A very remarkable Orchid shown also at the Temple 

 exhibition was Lissochllus gigaziteus. Like other species 

 of Lissochilus, it is terrestrial, has long, broad, plicate 

 foliage, and a flower stem towering six or eight feet in 

 height, carr)'ing numbers of large and curiously shaped 

 flowers of a rosy-pink color. It is a singularly noble 

 Orchid, but hardly one that everybody would care to cul- 

 tivate, as such a giant takes up too much room. It was 

 in the superb collection shown by Sir Trevor Lawrence. 

 In that from Ban in Schroeder, who owns one of the richest 

 Orchid collections in Europe, were also some very choice 

 things. I single out a few that struck me as worthy of 

 note, and none more so than the snow-white brides Wil- 

 lianisii, which some say is the albino of y£'. Fielding!, the 

 Fox-brush Orchid. Though not absolutely new, it is so 

 rare that most orchidists, even old, experienced men, had 

 never seen it. A new Scuticaria called Keyseriana, after 

 the Lord Mayor of London, who visited the exhibition, 

 came from Messrs. Sander & Co. It has affinity with 3'. 

 Steelii, but its flowers are larger, more heavily and 

 richly blotched and barred, and, altogether, it is a finer 

 flower. 



*A brief description of tliis Orchid was given in a late number of this journal. — Ed. 



