October 24, 1888.] 



Garden and Forest. 



409 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



rUlll.ISIIKIl WEKICI.V IIV 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Okfice : 'I'RibUNE Building, New Yokk. 

 Conducted by Professor C. S. Sakgknt. 



ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS IIL\TTER AT THE TOST OFP'ICE AT NEW YORK, N. Y. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24, li 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



EunoKiAL Akmcles: — Taste in Fluri^ts' Arrans^enients. — What is a Tree? — 



Plantiiii^ foi" Autumn Effect. — A More Natural Style of Gardening. . . 409 



Window Gardens C. L. Alien. 410 



The Rainfall on the Plains Professor Geo. E. Cttrtiss. 411 



Parks and Squares of United States Cities Charles Eliot. 412 



New or L!TTI,k Known Plants: — Phlox nana {vvitli illustration). Sereno Watson. 413 



Orchid Notes 413 



Plant Notes : — Syringa pubescens (with illustration) C. S. S, 414 



Some Useful Plants of Southern California C. R. Orcutt. 414 



Stuartia pentagyna. — Aralia spinosa. — The Seedless Barberry 415 



CuLiURAL Depautjment : — Manure IVni. Fakoncr. 416 



Roses W. 416 



'i'HE Fokhst: — New Forest Law for Italy B. E. Ferno^v. 417 



Cokrespondence : — Foreiji^n Plants and American Scenei'y, 



Frederick Latv Obnstcd. 418 



Notes 419 



Illustrations : — Phlox nana, Fij;". 66 413 



Syringa pubescens, Fig. 67 415 



Taste in Florists' Arrangements. 



NOT long ago we stated that florists and nurserymen 

 might exercise a wliolesome influence on pul)Iic 

 taste by paying greater lieed to the intrinsic excellence of 

 flowers and plants than to their novelty only. Another 

 way in which they can render service in the same direc- 

 tion is in their arrangement of cut flowers and decorative 

 plants. Public taste has greatly improved in this matter 

 during the past few years, and the fact is chiefly 

 owing to the influence of our florists, who have 

 offered their customers better and better things before 

 they were conscious of wanting them. The use of " set 

 pieces " is growing less common ; the wiring of short- 

 stemmed flowers, once the universal rule, has been largely 

 abandoned in favor of loose, natural-looking arrangements 

 of long-stemmed blossoms, as much more durable as they 

 are more beautiful ; boxes of cut flowers, left for arrange- 

 ment to their recipient's hands, are, perhaps, more fre- 

 quently chosen for gifts than anything else, and whatever 

 the disposition that is made of flowers, the necessity of 

 an intermixture of foliage to subdue and harmonize their 

 colors is becoming more clearly realized. 



All these welcome facts are largely due to the develop- 

 ment of good taste in the florist himself. Yet there is 

 much still for him to learn — many needed lessons which 

 he can impress upon the public. It is important, for ex- 

 ample, that when the selection of loose, cut flowers is left 

 to him, such varieties shall be chosen as are not merely 

 iiidi\'idually fine, but well adapted for association with 

 each other ; and that attention should be paid to durability 

 as well as to beauty. Of course, when arrangements for 

 some special occasion, as a dinner or a ball, are in ques- 

 tion, momentary effectiveness may outweigh other quali- 

 ties, under the circumstances; but, in general, flowers 

 should be so disposed that they can be preserved for a 

 reasonable length of time. The demands of beauty alone 

 would suffice to enforce this advice. We are so well 

 aware that if cut blossoms are deprived of moisture they 

 must immediately perish, that we involuntarily feel a sen- 

 sation of distress which interferes with our enjoyment of 

 their effect when the}^ are visibly deprived of it. To place 



them in baskets filled with moss is sensible, and therefore 

 satisfactory, but to tie them on the cover of a basket or in 

 bunches on the handle is not sensible, and therefore is in 

 bad taste. A true lover of flowers, receiving such an ar- 

 rangement, is tempted at once to take it apart and save 

 the flowers — and to have his work immediately pulled to 

 pieces cannot be a florist's wish. 



As regards the association of foliage with flowers there 

 is still much to be learned. It does not suffice that the 

 green selected shall be charming in itself ; it must suit the 

 character of the flowers it accompanies or the effect will 

 not be good. Asparagus teiiuissimus and Maidenhair Fern 

 are both lovely things, but neither of them suits all kinds 

 of flowers, as the fashion of the moment seems to declare. 

 Delicate flowers harmonize with the delicacy of such foli- 

 age ; but the same is not true of the massive Roses and 

 flaunting Orchids, with which we constantly see it 

 grouped. Tlie foliage of the flowers themselves is the 

 best guide in the selection of that which shall be arranged 

 with them. It need not be literally this, but it should be 

 something analogous in character ; and the cultivation 

 and introduction of various kinds of foliage suitable for as- 

 sociation with the flowers we most commonly employ in 

 winter is a work worthy of the best energies of some 

 intelligent florist. 



" Set pieces " are, however, the most difficult things with 

 which a florist has to deal. Theoretically they are all 

 wrong ; in fact they seldom seem even approximately 

 right ; and there are probably many lovers of flowers who 

 wish they might be forever banished from sight. On some 

 occasions they may seein to be indispensable, and then 

 they should be as simple as possible in both form and 

 color. A wreath or cross or a flat bunch from the top of 

 which graceful sprays of foliage project, is infinitely better 

 than a broken column, an inscribed cushion, an anchor, 

 or any of those innumerable devices in which flowers are 

 used, not for the sake of their own beauty, but to portray 

 some object more or less allegorical. A wreath all of 

 Violets or Pansies or white flowers, or of white flowers 

 sparingly intermingled with those of a single color, is far 

 more beautiful than one in which several colors are inter- 

 mixed ; one or two varieties of white flowers are far bet- 

 ter than many varieties ; and even in a " set piece " care 

 should be taken to secure at least an approach to natural- 

 ness in the placing of the blossoms, and to display the 

 beauty of their individual forms by some intermixture of 

 foliage. 



It need hardly be added that in any case when flowers 

 are employed for decorative purposes, reliance should be 

 placed on their beaut)' exclusively, and no attempt should 

 be made to enhance it by the addition of other factors, 

 as, for example, stuffed birds or masses of ribbon. 



We are glad to be able to say that no florists in the 

 world show to-day so much skill and good taste as ours. 

 Nowhere, except in Paris, is there even an approach to 

 the beauty of the flowers which we can buy in winter, or 

 of the arrangements which we can have prepared for us. 

 If we look, for instance, at the illustrations in English and 

 continental horticultural papers we find them about on a 

 level with those which were common here some ten or 

 fifteen years ago; the "fancy basket " is there still in its 

 prime, especially in Germany, and the most grotesque 

 and puerile devices are praised as marvels of ingenuity 

 and charm. We are far ahead, in our appreciation of 

 simplicity and naturalness, if we take the testimony of our 

 horticultural literature and the work of our best florists as 

 the standard. 



What is a Tree? 



THIS question, although often asked, is not easily an- 

 swered. There are shrubs so tall and so vigorous 

 that they may well be considered trees, and there are trees 

 so low and of such feeble growth that they hardly deserve 

 the name of trees. Really there is no liard and fast line 



