August 8, iSSS.] 



Garden and Forest. 



287 



amount of money he is able or willing to spend on it. It 

 may be said generally, however, that this particular loca- 

 tion, in common with many others on the shores of Cape 

 Cod and at other points on the New England coast, is ex- 

 ceedingly exposed to high, cold winds, and that the soil is 

 thin and light, and therefore seriously affected by droughts 

 in all but exceptional seasons. Trees, even if they could be 

 made to grow at all in a position so near the siiore, would 

 not be very satisfactory, and a lawn of close-cut turf had 

 better not be attempted, as it would be pretty sure to be 

 burned brown all summer long, and to be anything but an 

 object of beauty. Much of the New England coast-region 

 is unsuited for gardening, as that term is popularly under- 

 stood, an art which finds expression in trim lawns and in 

 beds of plants with colored foliage. The art of true garden- 

 ing consists in making the most of natural conditions, and 

 not in attempting the impossible or the unnatural for the 

 sake of imitating the fashions of other countries. A large 

 part of the region in question is covered'%vith broad ex- 

 panses of shrubbery composed of dwarf Plums and Vibur- 

 nums, Huckleberries and Blueberries, Sumach and Wild 

 Roses, Bayberry, Sweet Fern, Inkberry, Smilax and other 

 dwarf shrubs, combined together in natural masses unsur- 

 passed in their peculiar way in an)^ other part of the world, 

 and which are bright and fresh from the early days 

 of spring until the autumn frosts make them blaze with 

 new beauty. It is from among these native plants of New 

 England that the material for the embellishment of the 

 grounds of New England sea-shore homes should be se- 

 lected, and the combinations of these plants which Nature 

 makes are those which must be studied, if the best which 

 these homes can be made to express in beauty is to be at- 

 tained. Let any one compare a mass of the native shrub- 

 bery sweeping down to the shore on Mount Desert, or on 

 the southern shores of Cape Cod, with the ordinary im- 

 proved grounds which may be seen about the villas in 

 these places, with brown lawns and sandy walks, with 

 here and there a stunted Scotch Pine or a Cut-leaved Birch, 

 and with beds half filled with forlorn Geraniums or dried-up 

 Coleus, and he will see that large expenditures of money, 

 when not directed by adequate knowledge and taste, may, 

 in attempts at gardening, expel from a spot naturally 

 beautiful all its native charms, without supplying anything 

 in their place — either artistic or pleasing. — Ed.J 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — I notice in your issue of June 27th that our company is 

 credited with the introduction of that lieautifufjapanese shruli, 

 SyiHplocos paniciilatus. Will you allow me to state that Mr. 

 Thomas Hogg was the introducer, and we only the dissemi- 

 nators. Mr. Hogg brought from Japan so many Iieautiful 

 things which have produced no profit, either to himself or to 

 us, that all due credit should be accorded to him. I am the 

 more anxious that this should be done liere, since I have never 

 been able to get the American introducers of new plants from 

 Japan recognized in English periodicals. I sent a painting of 

 the h<i?a\^\iv\ Mag7iolia parvijlora to an Englisli paper, with a 

 careful description taken from a flower before me, and naming 

 Mr. Hogg as the introducer. This description was ignored, a 

 very nieagre note took its place; and while we were recog- 

 nized as the senders of the painting, Mr. Hogg was entirely 

 ignored as the introducer. This e.xperience was repeated in 

 the case of the Hydrangea named for him, and in the case of 

 the Japan Maples, the whole collection of wliich was sent to us 

 by Mr. Hogg. I may add Dr. Hall was treated in the same "way. 



Flushing, L. I. Sam' I B. Parsons. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — Throughout Minnesota and Dakota, along the north 

 side of railway embankments, the south side of railway cuts, 

 and on lireakings that have lain a year or more, little trees 

 come up and grow until weeds and grass form fuel enough 

 for a fire to kill them. 



On the prairies and plains these seedlings are not abundant, 

 but still tliey do come up. 



I believe that if fires could be kept from running over the 

 land, with occasional tree claims to furnisli plenty of seed, 

 trees and shrubs would soon come in and improve'this coun- 

 try very much. 



Mandan, Dakota, July 13th. H. B. A. 



Tc the Editor ot Garden and Foricst : 



Sir. — Reference wasmadein Garden and Forest, July i8th, 

 to Locust and Elder flowers being used in Europe as delicacies 

 for the table. Of the Locust I cannot spealc from experience, 

 but I can of the Elder. The flowers of the common Elder, 

 stripped from the stems, are excellent ingredients in waffles or 

 " flannel" cakes. These flowers add a delicious flavor to the 

 cakes and are considered healthful. People who are not 

 quite arsthetic enough to live on the perfume of Lilies, may 

 find in Elder blooms a seasonable diet. //. V. A. 



Palmyra, N. J. 



Periodical Literature. 



In the Popular Science Monthly for July is an article by Mr. 

 Grant Allen, even more attractive than the one on " The Bread- 

 fruit of the Desert" to which we recently called .our readers' 

 attention. This time his subject is " Gourds and Bottles" while 

 his place of observation is again the north coast of Africa. 

 The great family of Gourds (C«t7/ri{'/V(fct?(<') is known to us in 

 this country tlirough our cultivated Melons, Pumpkins and 

 Cucumbers, and through a few wild species none of which 

 produces a fruit of any great size. But the fruit of the true 

 Gourds of which Mr. Allen writes, is familiar not only through 

 imported dried specimens made to serve as bottles, but 

 tlu'ough the innumerable pottery and porcelain imitations of 

 these bottles which are so characteristic of the art of every 

 southern and eastern nation. Part of Mr. Allen's article is 

 taken up with a discussion of the way in which, after having 

 once learned to make vessels of the dried Gourds themselves, 

 men learned, first to strengthen them with a coating of baked 

 clay and then to use the clay by itself while keeping the 

 original shapes ; and in showing how all the varieties of 

 Gourd-like shapes we know may have sprung from direct 

 imitation, since the Gourd naturally assumes many diverse 

 forms and may be made to assume a still greater diversity by 

 being constricted during its growth. But much space is also 

 given to a description of the habits and manners of growth of 

 the plants, and of the different ways by which cross-fertiliza- 

 tion through insect agency is achieved in difterent species. 



In the same number of the Popular Science Monthly Professor 

 Byron D. Halsted writes of " Botany as it May be Taught" in a 

 manner so sensible and suggestive that his article ought to 

 attract the attention of all teachers and students in this branch 

 ot knowledge. Its value is vastly increased, of course, by the 

 fact that he explains methods which are not merely theoreti- 

 cal, but which he has successfully put in practice with large 

 classes of young men and women in the State Agricultural 

 College of Iowa. A third article which may be noted in this 

 magazine is Dr. Manly Miles's on " Lines of Progress in Agri- 

 culture," while among the minor contributions is an interest- 

 ing one on " Flower Farming" for the production of essences 

 in the south of France, and another on the manufacture of 

 India-paper from the fibres of Hemp, IVIulbeny-bark and simi- 

 lar substances. 



Notes. 



The death is announced of Giuseppe Inzenga, a well known 

 authority on Fungi, who was Professor at the University of 

 Palermo. 



Mr. David Allan, gardener to R. M. Pratt, Esq., Watertown, 

 Mass., has a number of fine plants of the showy Disa grandi- 

 Jlora in full bloom. 



A single plant of Antpelopsis tricuspidata, on Camden 

 Street, Boston, covers completely the front of a three-story 

 lilock of houses for a distance of one hundred and twentv-five 

 feet. 



From Ne\yport are now coming Hydrangeas with blue 

 flowers and Sweet Peas of the Butterfly variety «ith lilac 

 edgings. These are now extensively used by florists of this 

 city in choice designs. 



In the absence of Wliitc Carnations, Asters are largely used 

 by the Boston florists, iluring tlie summer months, in making 

 up designs. One large grower averages, at the present time, 

 three thousand Aster-blooms a day. 



Mr. John N. May, the well-known Rose-grower of Summit, 

 New Jersey, is not prepossessed in favor of the Rose, I\Irs. 

 John Lainsr, owing to the muddy color of its blooms after 

 they have'been cut twelve hours or so. Nevertheless, he 

 is devoting his largest house to its cultivation, and will give 

 it a fair trial. 



