December 5, 18S8.] 



Garden and Forest. 



483 



throughout, and therefore more durable. Nothing better for 

 a Newport wall could be imagined than a low plinth of brick 

 or stone, surmounted by a light iron trellis. The idea struck 

 certain owners some years ago ; but that was the age of cast, 

 not wrought, iron ; and the results are by no means what 

 they would be if well e.xecuted according' to our present lights. 



The oftener one visits Newport, the more one is impressed 

 with the beauty of the Casino, built, like IMr. Goelet's and 

 Colonel Edgar's houses, by Messrs. IVIcKim, Mead & White. 

 Here, indeed, is something- we may be willing to show a 

 foreigner as a measure of our good taste and of our success in 

 artistic independence. In its erection a wholly new problem 

 was triumphantly mastered. It has no prototype in this coun- 

 try or in any other, yet it is so perfect that we can hardly be- 

 lieve it was not the final outcome of a long series of tentative 

 efforts — so appropriate to place and purpose, so consistent 

 from end to end yet so varied between part and part, so 

 thoroughly artistic, so delightfully pretty. If there is anything 

 it needs, it is the more careful planting out of the fences in the 

 second court. These might easily be made to disappear be- 

 hind vines and shrubberies, and the charming effect of seclu- 

 sion which reigns in the first court be thus reproduced, in a 

 different way but with the same completeness. Otherwise 

 the planting is excellent. There are trees and shrubs enough, 

 yet not too many, and no formal beds e.xcept in just the right 

 spots. The wide lawn in the first court is free from their in- 

 trusion, but on either hand, as one enters the gateway, filling 

 the angle between the front building and the wings, is a large, 

 gracefully designed, and pleasingly-colored bed. Thus closely 

 connected with architectural forms, and in a place palpably ar- 

 tificial (in the best sense of the word) from end to end, no 

 features could be more appropriate ; and they give just the 

 needed amount of bright color to the softly verdurous general 

 effect. 



The most interesting work now in progress at Newport is 

 the laying-out, under Mr. Olmsted's direction, of Mr. Freder- 

 ick Vanderbilt's place, which occupies a point on the clift'at 

 the turn of Bellevue Avenue. The Cliff Walk, just after bend- 

 ing from a southerly to a westerly direction, here swerved a 

 considerable distance inward to skirt a rocky ravine with steep 

 sides, which breaks the line of the cliff. To regain the space 

 it occupied, and carry it to a more agreeable distance from 

 the house, a bridge has been built over the ravine quite at the 

 edge of the cliff. Lying, I should guess, about thirty feet 

 above the water, which breaks in lieneath it over a rock-strewn 

 bed, this bridge is of the simplest possible construction, with 

 small irregular voussoirs in a single round curve. But for this 

 very reason it is both appropriate to its place and admirably 

 picturesque; and the way in which passers will be relieved 

 against the sea and sky, when seen from the house, will make 

 their passing an advantage to the scene rather than an annoy- 

 ance. I am told that the owners are considering whether it will 

 not be well to adopt a scheme for treating their grounds which 

 will be an entire novelty in this part of Newport. This scheme 

 would confine the lawns and garden shrubberies to the en- 

 trance side of the house, and treat the entire seaward slope in 

 the most natural possible way. This portion is largely com- 

 posed of visible rocks in varied shapes of the most interesting 

 and picturesque character, and it certainly seems as though 

 to plant it with low native shrubs and creepers and wild flow- 

 ers, simulating, as far as possible, a spot which has not been 

 planted at all, would be the best device. If the house stood 

 farther from its neighbors — on a portion of the shore where 

 conventional, gardenesque treatment has not yet intruded — 

 there could be no possible question about the matter. But it 

 has been objected that just here, with conventional methods 

 of treatment on either hand, harmony will be injured by any 

 deviation from such methods. The place has, however, a 

 comparatively wide reach of water front, and, lying on a point, is 

 isolated from its neighbors to an unusual degree ; the ravine, 

 the bridge, and the beautiful rugged rocks seem to demand a 

 picturesciuely natural arrangement of its surface; and I think it 

 is certainly to be desired, if one loves either the best kind of 

 beauty or the truest kind of appropriateness, that the new idea 

 may be carried out. But only if there is to be no attempt at 

 compromise. The scheme should be natural throughout or 

 gardenesque throughout. A striking witness to the futilitv of 

 trying to combine the two results is already shown on that 

 portion of Ochre Point where, on the seaward side of the Cliff 

 Walk, the space is broadest and the rocks are most conspicu- 

 ous ; and it would he a thousand pities were this, perhaps 

 the most beautiful spot on the whole Cliff Walk, to be muti- 

 lated in a similar way. 



Mr. Olmsted's hand shows again in the drives which, within 

 the past two or three years, have opened up the interior of the 



southern portion of the island beyond the districts thus far 

 built upon and behind the Ocean Drive. Here the ground is 

 hilly with bold and beautiful high rocks, offering building sites 

 of a very desirable kind — with no sea fronts, it is true, but with 

 the most superb distant views of land and water. The new 

 roads are admirably disposed for convenience and beauty; 

 but it is a matter of regret that the spaces, usually of trian- 

 gular form, which are formed here and there by their inter- 

 sections, should have been carefully turfed and planted in a 

 conventional way with young trees and shrubs. Rough grass 

 and Huckleberry bushes and Sumach would have been more 

 in keeping with the character of the landscape as a whole. It 

 is to be hoped that those who may hereafter build in this 

 neighborhood will carefully and artistically preserve its char- 

 acter, and not strive to subdue its rugged and individual charm 

 to that neat prettiness which prevails in the level districts 

 nearer town. M. G. Van Rensselaer. 



New York. 



Chinese Horticulture in New York. 



AN experiment in Chinese vegetable gardening near New 

 York has established results of some consequence in the 

 course of four years. This industry is conducted with increas- 

 ing extent on Long Island, chiefly at Woodhavenand at Astoria, 

 with the section including Ravenswood and Steinway, at short 

 distances beyond. The product from these novel gardens, 

 which are known as the Far yiien, is already a considerable 

 item as a market supply. It fairly provides for a class of con- 

 sumers who prize their native vegetables as people accus- 

 tomed to a largely vegetable diet and who may obtain in 

 New York no less than twenty Chinese varieties of vegetables 

 fresh froni western soil. 



The Foo qua is one of the most abundant of these products 

 seen in market. This is the Momordica Charantia or Balsam 

 Pear, sometimes identified erroneously with Egg Plant, and 

 being in other cases confused with the Cucumber, the Wo7ig 

 qua of the extended list of edible plants familiar in China. 

 Like the Balsam Apple of the East Indian species of the Mo- 

 mordica, this is a curious trailing plant, with ornamental 

 foliage and peculiar fruit. Its intertwining, matted vine, cov- 

 ering the ground on which it grows, is dotted with small yel- 

 low flowers, unfolding continuously until late in autumn. Its 

 fruit, which is sold by weight, resembles the Cucumber in size 

 and general contour. The surface is marked thickly with 

 rounded, oblong formations of varied sizes, raised somewhat 

 like embossed patterns in decorative work. The seeds, in the 

 form of little discs, are figured on each flattened side, as with 

 engraved designs. These are perfectly ripened in Long Island 

 Chinese gardens, where they are dried for use in wide, shal- 

 low forms of baskets. The sliced fruit, dried in a similar 

 manner, is a medicinal provision. The Foo qua is a specially 

 valued product as used in gastronomical combinations of 

 varied nature. Whether fried with chicken, to form an epi- 

 curean dish, or chopped and mingled with pork or cooked in 

 some extraordinary manner with codfish, it is equally the 

 delight of Mongolian consumers. 



The Sing qua is another of the ornamental GourBs with 

 remarkable fruit not unfanfiliar to botanists. This is included 

 in the genus Luffa, of which ten species have been described. 

 It was formerly classed with the Cucumis, from being found 

 allied with it in some of its characteristics. The Luffa acu- 

 iangula is the Chinese variety introduced; the fruit is produced 

 in abundance for the market. In its general shape this is 

 somewhat like the long-necked Gourd, but with ten sharp exte- 

 rior ridges distinctively marking it in the direction of its length. 

 Its luxuriantly growing vines are trained over poles and trel- 

 lises, forming lengthy masses of foliage. The yellow flowers 

 continue to appea'r in the autumn season with the well-devel- 

 oped fruit, which is fully ripened in tropical latitudes only. 

 This product, which is of a sweet taste, is largely used for 

 soup in Chinese cookery, and, in other cases, is prepared 

 like Squash. When very young it may be eaten uncooked, like 

 Cucumbers. As with other varieties of its species, the inner 

 portion of the fruit is spongy, and, when old, forms what 

 mav be used as a sponge. The one variety indigenous to this 

 continent is largely represented in such form in the shops. 

 The network formation of the inner substance of the fruit 

 when ripe, is sometimes eighteen inches in length and three 

 inches in diameter. From recent experiments this fruit, 

 known popularly as the Sponge Cucumber, and variously as 

 the Cloth Gourd,' the Towel Gourd, the Bonnet Gourd and the 

 Enyptian Bath Sponge, has been brought nearly to maturity 

 near New York from seeds planted in the open ground. 

 The product in the variety reaching Chinese gastronomists 

 in New York amounts to several hundred pounds a year. 



