242 



Garden and Forest. 



[July 18, 188S. 



and several of the larger tropical Nymphff'as are floating, 

 while in the foreground there is a great mass of the Indian 

 Lotus. 



Among tender Water Lilies which flower by day by far 

 the best known in our gardens is the blue-flowered species 

 from the Cape of Good Hope, N'. scutifolia. It is a handsome 

 plant, with bright blue flowers, and very easy to cultivate. 

 In gardens it is sometimes confounded with N. ccerulea or 

 N. cyanea, synonyms of the tropical Afiican N. s/ellala, 

 which the ancient Egyptians prized so highly and so often 

 engraved on their monuments. Another blue-flowered 

 Water Lily, which is probably only a variety of this last, 

 is known in gardens as N. Zanzibarensis ; it has larger and 

 darker flowers, and is one of the finest and very best of all 

 the Water Lilies in cultivation. Varieties are known with 

 darker and with lighter flowers. 



Among tender Water Lilies which flower at night are N. 

 Lotus, an old world tropical species, with large, pure white 

 or sometimes red flowers (IS. rubra). It is the Lotus sacred 

 to Isis, and famous among the Egyptians, who, in spite of 

 its sacred character, made bread from its seeds and dried 

 roots. It is one of the first of the tropical species culti- 

 vated in Europe and one of the handsomest. It is a parent 

 of many hybrids, of which the most showy and the best 

 known is N. Devoniensis, one of the triumphs of English 

 horticulture ; and hardly surpassed in the brilliant color of 

 its large flowers by those of any other Water Lily. N. 

 rubra and N. dentata, now considered forms of N. Lotus, 

 although quite distinct from a garden point of view, are 

 exceedingly attractive plants, and this is true of the Ja- 

 maica Water Lily {N. ainpla), with its yellow^ or yellow- 

 white flowers. There are many more of the true Water 

 Lilies in the tropics, but it is unnecessary to enumerate 

 them here. 



But the Nymphseas are not the only aquatic plants 

 with attracti\'e foliage and handsome flowers, and no 

 collection of these plants will be complete without their 

 near relatives, the Nelumbiums, the Sacred or Water Beans, 

 with their broad, circular leaves, borne above the water on 

 tall, stout petioles, and great, fragrant flowers, standing 

 high above the leaves. There are two species, the yellow 

 Nelumbium (A^ luteuni), a native of our Western and South- 

 ern States, and now naturalized in a few places in the East, 

 notably in the Connecticut River below Hartford, and in 

 the Delaware below Philadelphia, and in New Jersey. 

 The American Nelumbium has handsome yellow flowers, 

 sometimes ten inches across, and farinaceous tubers, 

 which, like the seeds, are edible, and once furnished to the 

 North American Indians an important article of food. The 

 second species, N. speciosum, is a native of India. From 

 time immemorial it has been looked upon as the emblem 

 of fertility, and has been cultivated by the Egyptians and all 

 the people of the East. It is the Egyptian Bean of Pytha- 

 goras and the Sacred Lotus of India. The lovely, delicate 

 white, sweet-scented flowers, tipped with pink, which in 

 one variety are pure white, stand high above the pale 

 green leaves, and are not surpassed in beauty by those of 

 any other plant. It is easily cultivated, and the fact that 

 it has already become thoroughly naturalized in one pond 

 at least in New Jersej' excites the hope that this fine 

 plant will some day be as much at home in the waters of 

 the Middle and Southern States as it is in those of China 

 and Japan. At the North it should receive the treatment 

 necessary to insure the blooming of the hardier of the ten- 

 der Nymphaeas, although its more vigorous growth and 

 rambling habit demand a se|iarate compartment when it is 

 grown in a tank with other plants, which otherwise it 

 would soon exterminate. 



The list of aquatic plants with handsome flowers and 

 foliage is not by any means confined to the Nymphseas and 

 the Nelumbiums, but enough has been said, perhaps, to 

 draw attention to the pleasure which may be derived from 

 the cultivation of this class of plants which are within the 

 reach of any one who can afford a tub of w^ater and apiece 

 of sunnv trround laree enouijh to hold it. 



The Artistic Aspect of Trees. III. — Color. 



THE forms and the textures of trees having been 

 briefly noted as they appear from the artistic point 

 of view, it is time to say a word about their colors. 



The color of foliage is more or less affected by its 

 texture. Given leaves of a certain tint of green, the 

 tree will seem darker if its head is massive and dense 

 than if it is feathery and infiltrated with light. It is, of 

 course, the general color effect, and not the color of a 

 leaf separately considered, which concerns the student 

 of nature's beauties and of the planter's tasks. 



Among the varieties which nature creates when clothing 

 her trees in her usual livery of green, an artist would 

 distinguish varieties of tint and varieties of tone or 

 "\'alue." The green of foliage may be of a bluish, 

 or a yellowish, or a grayish tint, and, keeping this 

 tint, it may vary from a very pale to a very dark 

 tone. Again, the effect of a tree may be compounded 

 of the different colors shown by the different sides 

 of its leaves — may be a mottled and not a simple 

 tone ; and it is always affected by the surface-character 

 of the leaves, a smooth and shining tissue giving a tone 

 quite unlike that produced by a dull or woolly tissue, 

 even though upon examination the same shade of color- 

 ing matter be discovered. And then, when her greens 

 are exhausted, nature falls back upon other colors and 

 gives us such an eccentric thing as, for instance, the 

 Purple Beech. 



If, as we have said, it is impossible to learn how to ap- 

 preciate and manage the forms of trees from written rules 

 and counsels, it is still more impossible thus to learn 

 with regard to their colors. Among artistic powers a 

 feeling for color is the one which depends most upon an 

 innate gift ; and, though like all the others, it may be 

 cultivated with success, a process of practical self-cul- 

 ture — of constant observation and comparison and ap- 

 praisement — is the only one that can much avail. The 

 trouble with most of us is not that we could not see the 

 difference between harmony and disharmony in colors 

 if we tried, but that we do not try. We do not really look 

 at what we see. We accep^t what nature — and too often 

 what the planter — sets before us. and neither reflect 

 whether it is good or bad, nor stop to analyze the reason 

 even when we are quite sure which it is. Although, 

 however, reliance must chiefly be placed upon the cul- 

 tivation of eye and taste, whether the aim be apprecia- 

 tion merely or action too, a few general principles may 

 be explained in words. 



As with qualities of texture, so with qualities of color, 

 restfulness and dignity are more often desirable, and are 

 desirable in larger cjuantities, than restlessness and fra- 

 gile grace; and it may be broadly said that dark colors 

 are more dignified than pale ones, and that the most rest- 

 less of all are those which are mottled instead of simple. 

 The unquiet look of a Silver Maple, for instance, as com- 

 pared with the restful look of a Sugar Maple, depends as 

 much upon the varying color of the under and upper 

 surfaces of its leaves, as upon their more lace-like 

 shapes and the more straggling form of the tree itself 

 The former is the better tree of the two to supply a lively 

 accent in some situation where this is desirable ; the 

 latter is the better to use in large masses, or to place 

 as a single specimen where a strong yet quiet note would 

 be the right one. 



A second point which may be indicated is that it is 

 safer to place two tones of the same tint together — as a 

 dark and a lighter bluish-green — than to associate two 

 different tints — as a bluish v^'ith a yellowish green. Yet 

 the most effective combinations, when they are rightly 

 made, are those which owe their charm to contrast 

 rather than to concord. Still another point is that gray- 

 ish greens are those upon which dependence may best be 

 placed for harmonizing strong notes of other kinds — ap- 

 proaching most nearly to those neutral tones upon which 



