June 2, 1897.] 



Garden and Forest. 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office: Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducted by Professor C. S. Sargent. 



ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POST-OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. Y. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 2, 1897. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Articles : — Common Plants 211 



The True Purpose ot a Large Park 212 



Proposed Enlargement of the Missouri Botanical Garden, 



Fanny Copley Seavey. 213 



Foreign Correspondence: — London Letter IV. Watson. 214 



New or Little-known Plants: — Cladothamnus pyrolae-folius. (With figure) 



C. S. S. 216 



Cultural Department: — The Rock Garden in May T. D. Hatfield 216 



A Few Roses f. N. Gerard. 217 



Crinum amabile and C. Asiaticum Robert Cameron, vi-j 



April Irises Max Lei* htlin. 217 



Propagating Lilacs Joseph Meekan. 217 



Correspondence : — The San Jose" Scale Disease Professor P. H. Rolfs. 217 



May Flowers in Southern Michigan Dorcas E. Collins. 218 



Forest Preservation G. F. S. 218 



Current Literature : — The Cultivation of Plums 218 



Recent Publications 219 



Notes 220 



Illustration : — Cladothamnus pyrolsefolius, Fig. 27 215 



Common Plants. 



EVERY nurseryman's catalogue gives an important 

 place to its list of rare plants, and, of course, the 

 prices of trees and shrubs and herbs which are scarce are 

 higher than those which afford an ample stock to draw 

 upon. This is simply in obedience to the law of supply 

 and demand, which in a general way regulates the prices 

 of every commodity which man desires for use or orna- 

 ment. In the eye of some persons, however, rare plants 

 are invested with a value which does not belong to them 

 intrinsically. One who has acquired the habit or passion 

 for collecting, places the highest value on objects which 

 are unique. A first edition or the only known copy of a 

 book which in itself is nearly worthless may be a prize for 

 which a book collector will give a small fortune ; and in 

 the same way an Orchid which is the only individual of its 

 species known will command a price quite out of propor- 

 tion to any charm it may have of form or color or fragrance. 

 The case of one who is studying a given genus of plants is 

 somewhat similar. He may want an Iris, for example, to 

 complete his series, and to him the missing plant has 

 an importance that would not belong to it under any other 

 conditions. 



All this is readily comprehensible, but there are other 

 people who have a feeling somehow that rarity is in itself 

 an element of beauty in a plant ; at all events, if they 

 would not state this broadly, they firmly believe in its 

 converse, namely, that a plant which is common is not 

 desirable. It is this idea which lies at the root of the distinc- 

 tion between "common trees" and "ornamental trees" 

 which we so often hear. This notion was once so prevalent 

 that it was a difficult thing a few years ago to find common 

 American forest trees and shrubs for sale in American nur- 

 series. When Central Park was planted it was easy enough 

 to buy European Birches, Norway Maples and Horse- 

 chestnuts, but few nurseries had our own Canoe Birch or 

 Pin Oak or Pepperidge. English Hawthorns could be had 

 by the hundred, but many of our native Thorns were not 

 propagated at all. Spiraeas and Kerrias and Honeysuckles 

 from abroad could be had by the thousand, but our native 

 Honeysuckles and many of the best of the Viburnums and 

 other American shrubs were not classed as ornamental plants 



at all. Conditions have changed since then somewhat, an ; the 

 herbaceous plants and shrubs and trees which grow in our 

 own forests and along our waysides have been more freely 

 admitted into the aristocratic society of their foreign rela- 

 tives, and the fact that a plant is common is not always a 

 reproach to it. 



Different plants have different values to planters accord- 

 ing to the use that is made of them. Landscape-gardening 

 wherever it is practiced over areas of considerable extent 

 deals properly with scenery ; that is, with the permanent 

 features of the land — its roll of surface, its sky-line and dis- 

 tance. The greatest artist in landscape is one who with 

 these fundamental elements and the common trees and 

 shrubs and grass makes a picture which is a unit, and 

 every portion of which helps consistently to give expres- 

 sion to a central idea. This differs entirely from what is 

 called decorative gardening, which is concerned more espe- 

 cially with thedetailed ornamentation of morelimited spaces. 

 For decorative purposes plants and flowers may be grouped 

 into arrangements which kindle admiration on account of 

 their symmetry of form and richness of color. This is the 

 presentation of beauty for its own sake. It appeals to the 

 aesthetic sense alone and not to the imagination, and through 

 it to our higher nature as a landscape picture does. It is 

 not necessary that a decorative group should be in any sense 

 natural, and plants with foliage of strong color or those that 

 can be trained into peculiar shapes or which have an 

 unusual habit are often the most valuable in such places. 

 They are useful just as stones of different form and color 

 are useful in a mosaic. In decorative gardening a plant 

 of Golden Elder or of Prunus pissardi may have the highest 

 value, while the same plants in a natural landscape would 

 be worse than useless, and, indeed, might ruin a quiet 

 picture by their obtrusiveness. 



There is another kind of gardening, however, which has 

 been called specimen gardening, and which has many 

 attractions to genuine lovers of plants. To such persons a 

 garden exists for its plants rather than the plants for the 

 garden. It is not a landscape picture that is desired, nor 

 yet geometrical designs of pleasing form and color. It is 

 individual plants that are cherished irrespective of their ar- 

 rangement, and they may be selected for their rarity or their 

 oddity, or for any other quality that appeals to the fancy 

 of the planter. This makes a pleasant diversion, but it is 

 by no means the highest form of gardening. A wise ob- 

 server once said that it marked a distinct decline in garden 

 art when a gentleman led you to a point on his estate 

 where he could show you the finest Cryptomeria in England, 

 instead of conducting you to the point where you might 

 see the most delightful view. 



But we have wandered from our purpose. We set out 

 to make a mild protest against the idea that a plant is not 

 desirable if it is common. A great patron of horticulture 

 once declared that he could get up no enthusiasm for 

 Lilacs because they could be seen at every farm-house 

 door. Now, since there are hundreds of varieties of the 

 common Lilac and many distinct species besides, there is 

 opportunity for gathering a collection of these shrubs, 

 which represent a wide diversity of habit as well as in the 

 form and color of their flowers— many of them rare plants 

 which never graced a farmer's yard. But the common 

 Lilac itself will always be a desirable shrub. It has such 

 intrinsic merit that it cannot be vulgarized by mere abun- 

 dance. Its habit of growth, the graceful way in which its 

 dense panicles of flowers are carried above the thick 

 leaves, their exquisite color, which has no exact dupli- 

 cate in the vegetable kingdom ; the fragrance, which is 

 their own and unmistakable, will always make this a 

 useful plant. It is hardy, long-lived, and will endure 

 abuse ; it is often found by a wayside cabin without 

 a single companion, and yet it is beautiful enough to 

 have been the chief ornament of the home of one of 

 our great poets. It is admired because of its many good 

 qualities, and it will be more and more valued for asso- 

 ciation by every succeeding generation of plant lovers. 



