October 31, 



8.] 



Garden and Forest. 



431 



"The piece is nearly six feet liigli, six feet long and four 

 feet in width, and represents ' Gates Ajar.' In the centre are 

 two large pillars, from which are hung two gates. Joining the 

 pillars is an arch, having in the centre a cross and crown. Sus- 

 pended from the arch is a pure white dove, and on the top of 

 each pillar is a large star. Looking through the open gate and 

 picket fence is a representation of the Garden of Eden, in 

 which flowers, roses and ferns abound in artistic profusion. 

 On the right corner is a beautiful bouquet of roses tied with 

 satin ribbon. Across the front is the inscription, ' Light lie 

 the earth on thee.' Some 4,000 Asters and a large number 

 of Crimson King Carnations, Chrysanthemums and Roses 

 were used in making the piece, which will be sent as the gift 

 of a number of United States Senators." 



So long as pretentious abominations of this kind are created 

 how can we really congratulate ourselves on our taste ? And 

 who could look at the use that was made of flowers last 

 Decoration Day, and feel that, as a people, we had a proper 

 sense either of the beauty of flowers or of the meaning of the 

 word decoration in its general sense .' 



I know that it must be extremely difficult to do really well 

 on public occasions like this, when a hundred hands must 

 help to dispose of a myriad gifts of all possible varieties and 

 degrees of beauty. But the fact is not that we did not do really 

 well, but that we did so very badly, that, in New York, at least, 

 as I can say from careful observation, few examples could be 

 found where a spark of good taste was apparent. Here not 

 the florist, l)ut the public at large, was perhaps responsible ; 

 and doubtless in the case of many of our worst " set pieces," 

 like the expressman's trunk, the purchaser gives the idea, and 

 the florist is simply charged with its execution. But in many 

 cases the florist may be to blame ; and in all, I believe that a 

 word of discouragement and better advice from the florist 

 would change the current of the purchaser's wishes. It is 

 hard to say, in this as in all other matters, just how the law of 

 supply and demand affects the results we see. But, as one of 

 the public, I wish to emi^hasize your statement that if florists 

 will consistently point in the right direction the public will 

 surely follow. If it likes bad things, it is because it has not 

 seen enough good ones to know the difference. The taste of 

 our people is not naturally bad ; it may be uncultivated. Show 

 them excellence, and they will admire, and whgn they next see 

 ugliness they will recognize it for what it is. Anything really 

 lovely is sure to find a welcome even from the casual passer in 

 the street. The most tastefully arranged florists' windows in 

 New York are those which people stop to notice — not the 

 windows which contain the greatest amount of novelties or the 

 most striking flowers. An example of this fact struck me 

 forcibly last winter. Many windows, filled with a profusion of 

 costly blossoms, tastelessly heaped together, were unremarked, 

 while there was a constant crowd around one which showed 

 nothing but a mass of Ferns and other green, and in the centre 

 a large plain blue vase, in which stood half a dozen branches 

 of pink-flowered Japanese Plum. 



Marion, Massachusetts. v1/. G. Van Rensselaer. 



The Exhibition of the Architectural League. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — The Architectural League of New York announces 

 that its fourth annual exhibition will be held in December. In 

 connection therewith a competition for the gold and silver 

 medals of the League will be opened to all architects and 

 students under twenty-five years of age residing in this 

 country. A similar competition, organized last year, dealt 

 with the designing of "A Clock Tower on a Village Green," 

 and called forth some excellent drawings. The problem 

 chosen for this year is " The Tomb of a Celebrated Architect." 

 Admirably adapted to reveal the artistic skill and taste of those 

 who will compete, as distinguished from their mere "origin- 

 ality" in impulse and audacity in execution, this problem is, 

 moreover, one which, in the resiflts we may anticipate on the 

 exhibition wall, should be of particular interest to landscape 

 architects and the public at large. 



As has often lieen pointed out in Garden and Forest, our 

 cemeteries are, in theory, one of our chief titles to respect as 

 landscape gardeners and lovers of beauty ; but, in concrete 

 fact, they often fall below the ideal at which they aim. In no 

 point is success less often achieved than in the erection of 

 large and costly structures — vaults above ground, shafts, 

 architectural monuments or sculptured figures — commemora- 

 tive of an individual or a family. Year by year such conspicu- 

 ous memorials arise in growing numbers in the burial-grounds 

 near our large towns. In Greenwood, for example, tliere are 

 very many, some of home manufacture, and others imported 

 from Italian workshops. But, varying tliough they do between 



the extremes of severity and ornateness, they seldom wear an 

 aspect which even moderately satisfies the eye or corresponds 

 with the sentiment which should prevail in such a cemetery. 

 When they are not too gloomy to seem like monuments of the 

 Christian dead, they are too frivolous ; and even if tlie general 

 eflect is nearly right, the inartistic execution apparent upon a 

 near view destroys much of their claims to approval. Some 

 of the facades to vaults excavated in a hill-side look like ice- 

 houses or coal cellars, others like the homes of Egyptian 

 mummies. Some of the family tombs imitate little heathen 

 temples, others suggest kiosks, and others soda water foun- 

 tains. When sculptured figures are used, the hand of the 

 stone-cutter rather than the artist is most frec[uently revealed; 

 and the plainer shafts are too commonly devoid of the only , 

 qualities which could make them works of art — beauty of pro- 

 portion and grace of profile. They might be taken as relics 

 of some long past stone-age rather than what a community 

 can secure which has architects to do its bidding. I do not 

 doulit that there are other good large monuments in Green- 

 wood, but the only ones I can recall at this moment are the 

 graceful Gothic tomb which commemorates those members 

 of the Brown family who perished years ago in the wreck of 

 the " Arctic," and the Stewart tomb near the main entrance, 

 the sculptured decorations of wdiich were designed by IMr. St. 

 Gaudens in his earlier years. This, which is a facade merely, 

 the vault being excavated in the side of a bank, hits the right 

 medium, I think, between over-sombreness and frivolity ; the 

 sentiment of its decoration is Christian, and in execution it is 

 a work of art. It is dignified but not pretentious, beautiful but 

 not oljtrusive. 



If the sculptor or the architect, in the true meaning of the 

 words, were more often employed in similar work our 

 cemeteries might speak with honor to the living as well 

 as the dead. The coming exhibition of the Architectural 

 League ought to mark a noteworthy step in this direction. 

 Of course, as the competitors will be students and not practiced 

 masters, the designs it shows will not prove — they can merely 

 indicate — what good work we might secure in the way of 

 mortuary monuments. Yet there are many men of skill and 

 taste even among our novices in architecture, and doul)tless 

 some of the coming designs will be intrinsically worthy of 

 mucli praise. The programme wisely guards against excep- 

 tional extravagance in design by prescribing within compara- 

 tively narrow limits the size of the tomb and of the lot upon 

 which it shall stand ; and although a tomb appropriate to a 

 great architect may not give us with precision a type which 

 would serve for ordinary mortals, yet its peculiarities may 

 very likely be confined to its decorative motives alone. There- 

 fore I venture to bespeak for the exhibition the notice of all 

 who are concerned in the improvement of our cemeteries, 

 and who believe that the way to improve them is to bring in 

 the artist where the artisan has ruled too long. 



New York. George Cunt mi ng. 



Japanese Iris frorn Seed. 



To die Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — In Garden and Forest, No. 34, page 402, Mr. A. W. 

 Fewkes has an important article on raising Japanese Irises from 

 seed. My experience differs from his in regard to the fertility 

 of flowers which have not been artificially fertilized. Last 

 year I bloomed ten plants for the first time. The plants were 

 not large ; one bore but a single spike of bloom, and many 

 flowers were cut. From the seed wliich set and ripened from 

 insect fertilization four hundred plants were raised this sum- 

 mer. During tlie present year some flowers were artiflcially 

 hybridized; but those not so treated have, in almost every in- 

 stance, developed full seed-pods. My culture does not differ 

 essentially from Mr. Fewkes', so that no reason for the dis- 

 crepance of experience can be suggested other than a possil^le 

 cause in the difference of locality. 



Robert T. Jackson. 



Boston. 



Notes. 



The delicate and fragrant flowers of Clematis crispa are still 

 opening in consideralile abundance. The vine has I.ieen in 

 bloom five months. 



Mr. S. H. Vines has been appointed Professor of Botany at 

 the University of Oxford in place of Professor J. B. Balfour, 

 who was recently called to Edinburgh. 



Owing to the reduced state of the funds at command of the 

 California State Board of Forestry, the offices of Botanist, En- 

 gineer and Special Agent have been declared vacant from the 

 1st of November. 



