April 7, 1897.] 



Garden and Forest. 



133 



marked. Planting- may be introduced on either side of the 

 entrance, but once well inside, a view should be given of the 

 outlying grounds, or stretch of park, or distant wood. A 

 curved drive should not be planted continuously, but broad 

 masses of planting may be introduced, at first to shut off the 

 highway, at turns in the drive, and on the top or slopes of 

 knolls round which the drive may wind. 



The treatment of the terrace depends very much on the 

 architectural character of the building. By "terrace" I mean 

 not only the narrow strip of level ground placed parallel with 

 the house, or the more stately portion — often with architec- 

 tural adornments — that is laid out along the face of the struc- 

 ture, but the whole of the ground that forms the base or setting 

 of the building. A great divergence between the work of 

 English and foreign landscape-gardeners is to be seen in their 

 several methods of dealing with the ground immediately sur- 

 rounding the house. In England we insist that the treatment 

 of the ground next it shall be artistically formal, with regular 

 lines of turf, wall, slope, walk or bed, all displaying harmony, 

 as far as may be, with its architectural character. On the Con- 

 tinent, with some important and notable exceptions, they 

 surround the house with broad, irregularly curved spaces or 

 walks that have nothing in common with the design of the 

 structure. By one practice the endeavor is to give a base to 

 the building and to create on the contiguous ground an ex- 

 pression of kindred artistic spirit ; by the other, the ground is 

 treated as something apart, and a feeling of unrest is created. 



Various forms of terrace were then discussed, and Mr. 

 Milner passed on to the treatment of the garden proper, 

 quoting in part from a book of his own, published about 

 seven years ago : * 



So many considerations press in to vary general design in 

 the general plan of a garden that arbitrary dealing by imposi- 

 tion of what maybe termed paper designs, however ingenious, 

 is ill-advised. The detailed plan should spring from the site 

 as an adaptation of its natural or created features, and should 

 not be, as it were, forced upon the position, crushing it to an 

 artificial scheme. To copy simply the design of another place 

 is inadmissible. Considerations that rule in this connection 

 are almost infinite — extent, geological formation, soil, existing 

 natural formation or features, climate and aspect, the display 

 of distant beauty, conformity to outside influences, particularly 

 to the requirements of the possessor and the expenditure of 

 money that may be made. It is this important variety of 

 modifying influences, and how they are dealt with, that gives 

 charm to each new work of landscape-gardening and to the 

 development it presents ; just as we contemplate a fresh work 

 of the kind in pictorial art, and note how the artist has treated 

 the natural features, the colors and tints and their modifying 

 juxtaposition on the canvas. The painter may, indeed, have 

 his rules as to composition, for the use of his colors and the 

 production of his distances. His picture is not a servile copy 

 of nature in its exact details, but an artistic rendering of the 

 effect of nature, as seen by his educated eye and recorded by 

 his skillful hand. His picture, however, is viewed from the 

 same point ; but in the natural pictures created by the land- 

 scape-gardener the point of view is on every side ; there is no 

 back to his canvas. In each position the object should be one 

 of beauty, of interest and of delight, and its relation to other 

 features and to the whole field of the spectator's vision be 

 closely and truly considered. The landscape-gardener must 

 consider that his colors change and grow ; he must realize as 

 he creates his picture that in a few years what now seems like 

 a light green stroke of pigment to the painter may have be- 

 come a tall tree, beautiful in itself, but of altered beauty, either 

 helping or marring the landscape. He follows nature by adapt- 

 ing or garnering her beauties, and tutoring her, so to speak, to 

 a display of them. But by following nature is not meant a 

 slavish imitation or reproduction of any of her particular 

 scenes. Some are unattractive, some very inappropriate ; all 

 are subject to dissimilar conditions, and imitation in nature as 

 well as in art produces pettiness. But the spirit of the beauty 

 of nature, embodied as it were in those of her works or fea- 

 tures that express her majesty, simplicity, peacefulness, sweet- 

 ness, repose, refinement, strength, and variety in form, color, 

 abundance, or any of her modifications as parts of loveliness, 

 should be included and brought into juxtaposition in an ideal 

 scene so far as we are able to promote its natural development. 

 On the grouping of trees for effect, Mr. Milner says : 

 When the ground is broken or undulating (either natural or 

 created), advantage should be seized of marking the eminences 



* The Art and Practice of Landscape-gardening. Ey Henry Ernest Milner. Mar- 

 shall Hamilton, Kent & Co., Ltd., London. 1890. 



by planting. Rising ground may be in appearance raised still 

 higher if we cover it with wood. Trees standing singly em- 

 phasize falling ground. The brow of an eminence should not 

 be seen above trees. If the brow forms a tedious line, it 

 should be broken by clumps or large masses along its range, 

 and by dividing the line into very unequal parts. 



In conclusion, I maintain that we should carry out in the parts 

 surrounding the house the architectural feeling of the design in 

 terraces, walls, steps, basins, beds, and so form a base ; that we 

 can still have the dignified and quiet delight of formal work — 

 not a narrow curtailment of the whole design. But I insist that 

 there is in addition a broader treatment beyond — a work diffi- 

 cult to proportion in relation to foreground, to broad lawn- 

 spaces, to grouping and choosing trees and shrubs for effect 

 in size and color, to directing the eye to desired points, to 

 taking advantage of climate and character of the place either 

 natural or acquired, to provision of light and shade in the 

 undulation of the ground, and to a knowledge of horticulture. 

 This art-gardening is, I venture to assert, far beyond the lim- 

 itations of formal work only, for it can apply the balance and 

 proportion of the matter, and, in addition, present to us a 

 noble conception of art-work, in its execution of outline, sur- 

 face formation and grouping, and draw into the picture the 

 greater, broader, varied landscape. 



Mr. Milner's interesting paper recalls to us the present 

 necessity for remembering that the arts of architecture and 

 landscape-gardening are sisters, not antagonists, and that 

 the work of the architect and landscape-gardener should 

 be done together from the beginning, one supplementing 

 the other, but not, as too often happens, one crowding the 

 other out. The architect is apt to make light of the im- 

 portance of the treatment of the ground after it passes his 

 own immediate connection with it, and may consider that 

 the landscape-gardener does small justice to the setting of 

 his house. The result can only be satisfactory when the 

 two artists work side by side and in sympathy from the 

 outset, and neither attempting to go beyond his own legiti- 

 mate limits. There is still too little of this collaboration, 

 and too little sympathy between the professions, each now 

 fearing the interference of the other. It will be a great 

 step in the advancement of both arts when the architect 

 and landscape-gardener shall, as a matter of course, decide 

 on the site of the house together, helping each other to 

 arrange a base for the building ; and also when the beauty 

 of broad landscape treatment shall be recognized, as well 

 as its necessity for the completeness of an artistic whole. 

 New York. Beatrix /ones. 



Foreign Correspondence. 

 London Letter. 



Cephalandra Mackenii. — Cephalandra is allied to Cucur- 

 bita and includes about a dozen species, all African, one, 

 C. Indica, known also as Coccinea Indica, extending to India 

 and Malaya. They are Bryony-like climbers with peren- 

 nial root-stocks, angular or lobed green leaves, dioecious, 

 bell-shaped yellow or white flowers an inch across and 

 smooth fleshy drupe-like fruits from one to three inches 

 long, usually of a brilliant scarlet color; they contain a 

 large number of ovoid compressed seeds a quarter of an 

 inch long, broad and flattened at one end. They are usually 

 bitter like Colocynth. C. Mackenii is wild in Calfraria, 

 where it scrambles over trees and shrubs and bears large 

 numbers of bright scarlet sausage-shaped fruits three 

 inches long ; the leaves are palmately lobed and three 

 inches across. In the garden of Mr. Hanbury, at Mentone, 

 it is a valuable evergreen climber, flowering and fruiting 

 most profusely. Planted against a south wall it covers a 

 space twenty yards square in a few months. I have lately 

 received a box of the fruits from that garden. C. Indica 

 requires warm greenhouse treatment at Kew, and probably 

 C. Mackenii will thrive with it. Cultivators must not 

 overlook the fact that these plants, being dioecious, must be 

 represented by individuals of both sexes. 



Sicara odorifera. — I have lately seen in American papers 

 references to this Cucurbit under the name of " Casabanana," 

 and it is recommended as an edible fruited gourd. It has 



