io4 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 473. 



posed in this way in masses of distinct tones the collection 

 will have a beautiful shaded effect. 



It is well to place some smaller vases inside the bowl, 

 as a finger-bowl, and inside of that again an ordinary 

 glass. This enables one to place the flowers exactly where 

 it is wished to have them, and they are also kept in place. 

 As autumn advances, more vivid coloring is everywhere 

 seen in plant-life. We lose from the garden such flowers 

 as the pale forget-me-not and garden pink, Dianthus plu- 

 marius, and red and yellow flowers predominate, as though 

 Nature wished to give us her most brilliant colors before 

 reducing us to the sombre tints of winter. Huge bunches 

 of golden-rod and sunflowers, gaillardia and coreopsis, 

 are appropriately used to decorate the halls, and great 

 clusters of bright red crab-apples brought in from the 

 orchard, while the dining-table is decorated with a mass 

 of showy Phlox Drummondii. There are many yellow 

 flowers, as gaillardia, coreopsis and calendula, which 

 combine effectively with other colors. The double yellow 

 calendula, for example, shades from pale to deeper and 

 unusual tints. These flowers look particularly well com- 

 bined with bright blue corn-flowers, Centaurea cyanus ; 

 brighter yellow flowers would be too vivid for the blue, 

 but this combination seems to suit the calendulas. Gail- 

 lardias, with their deep red centres, show to good advan- 

 tage combined with deep red flowers, such as those of 

 Monarda didyma, and the yellow petals are thus brought 

 into good relief. Red and yellow well combined make a 

 beautiful effect. Nature teaches us this in all her autumn 

 coloring, and it seems reasonable to adopt the same com- 

 bination for cut flowers also. 



Among the flowers which are suitable for arrangement 

 in bowls none are more difficult to dispose pleasingly than 

 nasturtiums, and it is easy to make them look stiff. The 

 ordinary bowl is useless for them, as the stems are short. 

 The leaves wilt quickly, and altogether these richly colored 

 flowers are most satisfactory when in the garden. Baby's 

 Breath, Gypsophila paniculata, has an insignificant, fine 

 little white flower that can hardly be called pretty and has 

 almost no perceptible odor, but it is indispensable. These 

 flowers are carried on almost invisible needle-like stems, 

 and with a spray or two of this in a vase the long-stemmed 

 flowers will stand in exactly the position that is wished, 

 and a delicate feathery effect is given to the arrange- 

 ment. The foliage is a soft shade of green. The tiny 

 white blossoms are beautiful as a part of the combina- 

 tion, or a small spray may be used in the centre of the 

 bowl to hold the flowers erect and not show at all in the 

 finished arrangement. With nasturtiums it is especially 

 useful. It should be placed in the bowl first, and the nas- 

 turtiums added on the shaded scheme of first a cluster of 

 dark flowers and then of a harmonizing tint, until the effect 

 is a gorgeous rainbow coloring and not at. all of a patch- 

 work. 



To sum up, in arranging flowers they should be made to 

 look as much as possible as they do in nature. Tall flow- 

 ers should be arranged in tall vases and short flowers in 

 shallow ones ; dainty flowers in a delicate way, and the 

 more solid ones in masses ; and the effect should always 

 be to bring the flowers into prominence, and not the vase. 



Rangeley, Me. Dorothy Root. 



New or Little-known Plants. 



Cornus asperifolia. 



THIS shrub of the western and southern United States 

 appears to be rare in gardens, although it has been 

 cultivated for a dozen years in the Arnold Arboretum, 

 where it has proved perfectly hardy and one of the most 

 distinct and desirable of the American Cornells. Cornus 

 asperifolia is a shrub with erect stems, sometimes attaining 

 a height of fifteen feet, reddish brown and mostly pubescent 

 branches, slender rough-pubescent branchlets, ovate or 

 oblong leaves, acuminate, with long or short points, 

 scabrous above and whitish and soft-pubescent below ; 



white flowers in ample, open, flat cymes, and white fruit 

 borne on bright red pedicels. Cornus asperifolia is dis- 

 tributed from the northern shores of Lake Erie to Minnesota 

 and Nebraska, and southward to South Carolina, Florida 

 and Texas, but is most abundant in the states west of the 

 Mississippi River. 



The figure on page 105 of this issue, which we believe is 

 the first portrait of this plant which has been published, is 

 the reproduction of a drawing made by Mr. Faxon from a 

 plant cultivated in the Arnold Arboretum. 



Cultural Department. 



Early Spring Flowers. 



MR. WATSON'S letter of last week reminds me to report 

 on the flowers of this debatable season, which is not 

 winter and less than spring. One never tires of the dainty 

 beauty and fragrance of the Snowdrops, and it is an annual 

 surprise to watch them boldly brave the rigors of the winter. 

 They were formerly associated with the encouraging idea that 

 another season of growth was commencing, but the edge has 

 rather been taken off that sentiment, for we now have Snow- 

 drops in the garden from September onwards, and there is no 

 time during the half year when blooms of these may not be 

 found making such progress as the elements may permit. 

 There are quite two-score clumps of Snowdrops under various 

 names in my garden. Many of these are well determined and 

 distinct kinds, and many there are whose labels are geograph- 

 ical queries, as they bear names only of unheard-of places 

 where they were collected, mostly by Mr. Whittall, whose 

 loving labors have added so many good kinds to our garden. 

 Most of these strangers prove to be forms of Galanthus Elwesi, 

 but one grows them always with the pleasant anticipation that 

 among them will be found some rare gem. If rapidity of 

 increase and perfect adaptability to the usual garden condi- 

 tions are tests of greatest value, I quite agree with Mr. Watson 

 that G. nivalis is the best Snowdrop. While small-flowered, 

 it is as pretty as any of the family. It is the only Snowdrop in 

 my collection which forms thick clumps of bulbs and increases 

 rapidly in any position. But there is a wealth of variety and 

 distinctness in the family, and mere difficulty of cultivation 

 will scarcely deter one in such a promising field. Mr. Whit- 

 tall's Cassaba variety of G. Elwesi is a bold, distinct flower 

 (one of the largest) on strong scapes. The Aidin variety 

 scarcely holds to its original promise, but among the bulbs I 

 was fortunate to find a few with trim flowers and some nice 

 colorless forms — that is, nearly white, the usual green of the 

 ovaries and inner segments reflexed with a slight glow of 

 yellow. G. Ikariae, with its shining, broad scilla-like leaves, is 

 one of the most distinct Snowdrops, but has not made much 

 progress here. The leaves seem more affected by hard con- 

 ditions than those of the other varieties. Of the boldest or 

 large-flowered Snowdrops, perhaps the most satisfactory is 

 G. nivalis Atkinsii. The Melville variety of the same species 

 is equally bold, but has an unsatisfactory tendency to produce 

 extra petals, destroying the symmetry of the flowers. Mr. 

 Allen's seedling Charmer is another beautiful kind with great 

 purity of color. 



Of the more common kinds the Italian form of Galanthus 

 nivalis imperati is very pleasing, with long pointed buds. This 

 form of bud, which is owing to narrow outer petals, seems to 

 me distinctly more pleasing than the globose forms which one 

 finds among the G. Elwesi and in such forms as G. robustus. 

 G. Fosteri is a highly esteemed kind which has never done 

 well with me, and G. plicatus, the Crimean Snowdrop with 

 folded leaves, refuses to stay at all. All the Snowdrops are 

 handsome, except the double-flowered G. nivalis and the odd 

 horned one, G. Scharlokii. This has two horn-like growths, 

 produced by splitting of the spathe and the flower, which is 

 short and is blotched with green markings. The Elwes Snow- 

 drops are now so available at a reasonable rate that they 

 should be planted largely, though they do not always increase 

 very well. Perhaps positions under deciduous trees are the 

 most satisfactory, they naturally growing in such places. 



The first Crocus of the season is usually the rosyC. Imperati, 

 but this is not usually as reliable in the garden as C. Susianus, 

 the golden color of which is very acceptable at this bleak 

 season, when high colors are very rare. There are other 

 yellow Crocuses in flower now, dainty beauties, but they are 

 nameless. 



One of the most satisfactory flowers of the season is the 

 Taurian Squill, introduced by Mr. Whittall a few years ago, 



