September 19, 1S8S.] 



Garden and forest. 



J5I 



in life-like action, solemn gods and goddesses, without 

 number, are here presented in floral attire, to the ad- 

 miring multitude who flock in thousands to the spot. 



Theodore Wores. 



New Yorl;. 



A Woodland Ti^agedy. 



TO the conscientiously scientific student of Nature 

 everything that grows may possibly be of equal inter- 

 est at all times. But I think that for all desultory ob- 

 servers like myself there is sure, from week to week, to 

 be some new thing which, at the moment, specially 

 touches the fancy and seems more interesting than 

 everything besides. A while ago I was all for the 

 Heaths. Any one of their kindred seemed enchanting, 

 and nothing else seemed half so much so. Just now 

 the Sundews have taken their place in my affections. 

 Drosera rolundifolia is our common species. This, of 

 course, is one of the things that must be looked for; but 

 if one looks it appears in a hundred spots, each of more 

 fairy-like loveliness than the other. Tiny islets of moss 

 set around with low Blueberry bushes in half-swampy 

 meadows are its favorite stations, where it forms little 

 clumps of half a dozen plants. But I have found one 

 spot where it grows in much greater profusion. Far 

 back from the high-roads, through a wide-spreading 

 growth of young trees and thickly intermingled shrubs — 

 a growth too young as yet to be called a forest — runs an 

 abandoned road, green now over all its length, and often 

 to be traced only by the fact that it lies a little lower 

 than the g-eneral surface of the "-round. Along: this road, 

 at a place which is swampy after rain but dry enough in 

 time of drought, the moss is tangled with Cranberry vines 

 and spotted with patches of Sundews, while if one stoops 

 and lifts the curtain of shrubs and creepers which over- 

 hangs the little foot-high embankment on either side, its 

 face is found to be clothed for yards with the round, red, 

 bristly little leaves, each tiny hair bearing its drop of 

 glue, like a diamond awaiting some Titania's ear. Of 

 course the fact that these miniature, jewel-like arrange- 

 ments are murderous arrangements is what makes them 

 so attractive. Modest and retiring though it is, this tiny 

 plant gives us a chance to see a bit of the great world- 

 drama called the struggle for life in vivid action. Al- 

 though we know that one plant always lives by the death 

 of another, we do not often see this truth in clearly visible 

 shape. When we do, as when a Dodder is sucking the 

 life out of some tender stem, we suddenly find our interest 

 in vegetable development intensified ; and when it is not 

 a plant but an animal that succumbs, the interest grows 

 positively tragic in strength. We may poison or catch 

 flies by hundreds in our rooms and never think of such 

 words as fate or the struggle for existence — the forces in 

 conflict are too unequal. But watch a little, lovely Sun- 

 devif leaf when a tiny fl)^ alights upon it, sit patiently for 

 some thirty minutes until the insect disappears in a tight, 

 little, red, clammy fist, and the whole panorama of the 

 world's history seems to unroll before the imagination. 

 Perhaps it is because here the usual results are reversed, 

 and, animal and vegetable forces coming in conflict, the 

 weaker-seeming prevail ; perhaps it is simply because we 

 seldom think of plants as acting at all, and suddenly find 

 them in what looks like conscious effort ; but, whatever 

 the reason, it must be a dull mind that is not thrilled 

 with a sense of the interdependence of all created things, 

 •of the awfulness of Nature's methods, the irresistible force 

 of fate, the iron rule of the law that nothing can live but 

 by the death of something else, when he sees a Sundew 

 clasp its victim. Do such words sound too big for so 

 small a drama — for a catastrophe which can be hidden by 

 the curl of a Fern-tip or the fall of a Blueberry leaf.? If 

 so, it is because you have never looked- long enough at 

 tiny things to realize that what we call size counts for 

 nothing in Nature's mind, whether beauty or significance 

 be her aim, and have never, while realizing this, seen a 

 Sundew catch a fly. y?/. G. van Reiisse/aer. 



Marion, Mass. 



Foreign Correspondence. 



London Letter. 



THE trial plots in the gardens of the Royal Horticul- 

 tural Society at Chiswick, a few miles from the centre 

 of Londiui, are now full of interest to gardeners and all 

 interested in fruits, flowers or vegetables. For years the 

 Society has made trial of important flowers, fruits and 

 vegetables in order to test their qualities. They invite the 

 principal nurserymen and seedsmen to send collections of 

 particular classes, including their novelties, and all are 

 grown under as suitable conditions as is possible, so that 

 a fair test is given to all, and as the garden of the Society 

 is neutral ground, the trials have much value both to 

 tradesmen and to the gardening public. The subjects vary 

 from year to year. Sometimes it te Peas among vegeta- 

 bles; Strawberries among fruits; Pelargoniums or Begonias 

 ^mong flowers, the subjects being chosen according to 

 their importance, their popularity or the state of the 

 nomenclature of their varieties. By these means one is 

 able to see and inspect in a small area a collection of 

 many varieties, and in this way comparison of qualities 

 can be easily made. These public trials also furnish a 

 check upon the nomenclature, especially in reducing 

 synonymy. For instance, last season, Tomatoes were 

 put under trial. There was a multitude of named varieties, 

 but at judging-time the Committee found so many identi- 

 cal that the number of distinct kinds was ver)^ small. This 

 is good work, as it enables the amateur to select the best 

 and shun the worthless sorts. 



Among the subjects under trial this 3'ear in the way of 

 flowers are China Asters, Ten-week Stocks and bedding 

 Lobelias, and I have to-day been included in the Com- 

 mittee whose work it is to judge these. We found an 

 enormous array of China Asters and Stocks, probably a 

 hundred named sorts, all growing side by side in lines 

 precisely under the same conditions, raised at the same 

 time and planted out simultaneously, and all received the 

 same cultural treatment. The principal exhibitors were, 

 of course, continental firms, as we do not in England save 

 our own China Aster or Stock seeds. Messrs. Vilmorin- 

 Andrieux & Co., of Paris, and Messrs. Benary, of Erfurt, 

 sent most of the seeds for trial, the collections of both 

 being admirable, and it was difficult to say which was best. 

 One who had never seen great collections of these flowers 

 would be astonished at the great diversity of stature, of 

 habit and of'color among them. The practice of the Com- 

 mittee is to denote the qualities of the subjects by marks. 

 Thus, one mark is given for good habit of growth, one for 

 form of flower, one for richness, distinctness of color, and 

 so on ; but, as a rule, only those sorts that can command 

 three points — that is, are good in habit, in flower and in 

 color — are considered, and the three marks are taken as 

 equivalent to a first-class certificate. 



The Ten-week Stocks were a difficult class to judge, as 

 there is such a difference in habit and color among them. 

 I will not attempt to enumerate all the varieties which were 

 counted worthy of a triple distinction, but will select a few. 

 The best of all were comprised in the tall, large-flowered 

 section. The spikes of bloom are massive, and the flow- 

 ers perfect rosettes, while for profusion of bloom and com- 

 pactness of growth they are faultless. The selected sorts 

 were blood-red, sulphur-yellow, lilac, violet, light violet 

 and purple, all of which were sent by Vilmorin. Benary 's 

 collection contained some very charming colors, and what 

 pleased me most were the subtle half tones, which, I fear, 

 many, who like only distinct and bright colors, would not 

 admit into gardens. One called Ash-gray was a peculiar 

 shade of grayish purple, quite indescribable: another called 

 Chamois was a soft fawn tint, and others called Lilac Rose 

 and Mauve Purple are most beautiful. The difficulty is to 

 find names for them all. The attempt to describe the 

 colors by the names is often a failure, while to give fancy 

 names to each would be absurd and lead to confusion. 

 Some of the dwarf sorts were exceptionally fine, the plants 



