448 



Garden and Forest. 



[November 14, 18 



did one know where to look, and its name is included in the 

 list of native plants printed in the local guide-book. 



This list — compiled by iVIrs. Owen, of Springfield, Massachu- 

 setts — reveals how rich the island tiora is. From the botan- 

 ist's point of view the abandonment of sheep-raising must be 

 accounted fortunate. For, as another contributor to the 

 guide-book writes, when sheep were allowed to roam at large 

 over the commons, it was only by the most diligent seeking 

 that the botanist obtained perfect specimens of any flowering 

 plant. " One feeble specimen of the blossom of i\ie Hudsonia 

 tomentosa could be found in perfection where now, freed 

 from the sheep, ... its yellow flowers are to be had for 

 the glancing. Even the varieties of the Golden Rod, . . . 

 which furnish the rich covering to our commons at times, 

 were not a familiar feature, though known and specified by 

 the scientists of the island." Then it must have been true 

 that Nantucket was a barren waste to the eye ; but it is truer 

 to say at this present time that it is a garden of flowers from 

 summer's end to end. 



And, according to the belief of many persons whom I met, 

 it might be made a wealth-producing garden, too. The soil, 

 it is said, would be well adapted to certain cereal crops, \\&r(t 

 it only manured a little; and, even now, the vegetables it pro- 

 duces are of excellent quality. It seems as though there 

 must soon come a time when these vast tracts of now un- 

 profitable land will be turned to some account, perhaps by a 

 revival of energy on the part of the islanders, perhaps 

 through the advent of " off-islanders " intelligent enough to 

 seize the advantages of a spot where a house, with considera- 

 ble land about it, may be bought for one or two hundred dol- 

 lars, and where the rapid growth of a summer population must 

 create an enormous demand for market-garden products. But 

 the time to see Nantucket is before this day arrives. Already the 

 aspect of the town and of many parts of the shore has been 

 grievously altered by the tourist throng; and when the savage 

 simplicity of the interior shall have been softened beneath 

 the plow, Nantucket will look a good deal like the rest of the 

 world. To-day, when one turns his back upon the shore, it 

 seems unique; and to an eye which can appreciate a landscape 

 where almost all the conventional attributes of " natural 

 beauty " are wanting, it seems uniquely attractive — or perhaps 

 a better word would be, impressive. A splendid sky and the 

 breath of a tearing wind tell us of the splendid sea, even when 

 it lies out of sight. Seldom in civilized regions are we swayed 

 by such a sense of breadth, vastness, freedom and the spon- 

 taneous action of elemental forces. Seldom do we see such 

 beauty of color created with factors of such simplicity. And 

 everywhere under our feet is the wide carpet of flowers and 

 herbage in endless variety, in perpetual harmony and loveli- 

 ness. The mainland is more picturesque ; IVIontauk is 

 grander ; Block Island is more singular in surface conforma- 

 tion. But nowhere else on our coast is there so broad an 

 expanse of uncultivated land, so simple as regards large fea- 

 tures, so varied as regards those of minor size, so impressive 

 in a general view, so interesting to the eye of minute exami- 

 nation. M. G. van Rensselaer. 



New York. 



'_' The practice of leveling the surface has done much mis- 

 chief both in park and pleasru'e ground. . . . When from 

 any circumstance spare earth is to be disposed of in the 

 pleasure ground, it is usually applied to the filling up of any 

 hollows that may fortunately exist ; whereas it should gener- 

 ally be used to increase any indications of undulating forms, 

 as even the smallest variety of this kind is highly advantageous. 

 It will be safer for the unpracticed eye to increase the existing 

 varieties of the ground rather than to create new ones, the 

 arrangement of earth for this latter purpose being an operation of 

 considerable difficulty ; whereas a moderate degree of caution 

 cannot well fail in the former." — [W. S. Gilp'in's "Practical 

 Hints on Landscape Gardening," London, 1832.] 



" Wherever Nature has herself glorified a country and made 

 a picture bounded only by the horizon, as in many parts of 

 Switzerland, Italy, Southern Germany, and even "our own 

 Silesia, lam strongly of the opinion that park-works are super- 

 fluous. It seems to me like painting a petty landscape in one 

 corner of a beautiful Claude Lorraine, in such places we 

 should content ourselves with laying out good roads to make 

 the fine points more accessible, and here and there the cutting 

 of a few trees to open vistas which nature has left closed! 

 Around the house, however, we want a pleasant garden in a 

 limited space and in contrast with the surrounding country. 

 In such a garden we no longer seek the variety of nature, but 

 rather convenience, agreeableness and beauty."— [Puckler- 

 Muskau, 1834.] 



Foreign Correspondence. 

 London Letter. 



WE are now fairly advanced into mellow autumn, and 

 the atmosphere of the horticultural world here is 

 more than usually fruity. Little is talked about in matters 

 horticultural except fruits. One hears of fruit-growing 

 companies to be started and of fruit-growers' associations, 

 while fruit conferences and fruit exhibitions are common in 

 London and the provinces. We seem to have suddenly 

 become aware that England is pre-eminently a fruit- 

 growing land ; that we have wasted millions in buying 

 fruit from the foreigner ; that thousands of men have lost, 

 or rather neglected, opportunities in making bulky fortunes 

 by fruit culture for market. .Some enthusiasts go so far as 

 to say that fruit-growing for profit is the only panacea for 

 the depressed state of the farming interests in this country. 

 Mr. Gladstone and other great men have pronounced in 

 favor of extended fruit-farming, but even this does not 

 appear to excite the stolid nature of the British farmer, 

 who smiles mildly at the new " fads," and keeps on grow- 

 ing corn and meat as his fathers did before him. "Why 

 allow Americans to send us the best Apples that the mar- 

 kets can supply, when we can grow fruit as fine as 

 theirs 1 " This is one of the stock phrases of the pro- 

 moters of fruit-growing companies, so that if anything 

 really solid results from all the present excitement about 

 fruit-farming, it will be a straight hit at Americans, who 

 have taught us how to grow, how to select and how to 

 pack Apples in order to reach our markets in as fine a con- 

 dition almost as if just gathered from the trees. But Amer- 

 icans have nothing to fear from this passing fruit talk, at 

 least for many )rears to come. It does very well to fill in 

 a quiet interval, for nothing serious, I fear, will result from 

 it, and when, next month, gardeners and others are en- 

 grossed in their Chrysanthemums, we shall hear little of 

 fruit-farming except from the few who have real interests 

 in the movement. The companies just started for fruit- 

 farming are evidently believed in, for the Rothschilds and 

 other great people have taken shares in them freely. 



There previously had been some minor fruit exhibitions 

 and conferences held at the Crystal Palace and other 

 places, but the chief event in this way is now taking place 

 in the garden of the Royal Horticultural Society at Chis- 

 wick. During all this week there has been a great gather- 

 ing of those interested in fruit, fruit-nurserymen and pri- 

 vate gardeners chiefly, very few actual fruit-growers for 

 market. There is a very large exhibition of Apples and 

 Pears, numbering over 5,000 dishes, the bulk of them very 

 fine fruits, from all parts of England and Scotland. But 

 you see there only a repetition of the large exhibition of 

 Apples in 1883. The same collections of fifty sorts and 

 so on ; very fine examples, no doubt, of very fine varieties, 

 but that is all. There is a great ado made about correct 

 nomenclature, as it is loftily called, and little wrangles 

 among gardeners about the proper names of such and such 

 a variety are not infrequent. I will not attempt to detail 

 the exhibition, as I know^ it would be of little interest to 

 your readers. It is nothing but an exhibition, a fine show 

 of the leading sorts of Apples grown by English gardeners 

 for the gentleman's kitclien and table. I did not see one 

 collection of sorts grown exclusively for market. There 

 was not one exhibitor who sent a half a dozen sorts, and 

 said : "These sorts are, in my opinion, the best to grow 

 for the market. I live in Sussex ; my soil is a deep loam 

 resting on gravel ; the situation is exposed and high, not sub- 

 ject to late frost." This is the kind of information that would 

 be really useful, for you would get the opinion of a prac- 

 tical man from a given locality, and we should see the 

 sorts he has selected as suited to his particular market. The 

 same could be done in the case of selections for private 

 gardens, which must necessarily be larger. It is acknowl- 

 edged that we have far too man}- sorts of Apples; the hsts of 

 every large fruit-nurseryman are quite bewildering to the 

 amateur who wishes to select a few of the best. What we 



