320 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 495. 



abundant, the case is reversed. They are ragged and un- 

 graceful in habit, and therefore look best when used to 

 supply sparks of yellow to large bouquets of foliage. But 

 the Spikenard, again, is attractive because of the way it 

 bears itself, and the combination of its handsome leaves 

 with its large panicles of minute greenish flowers. Two 

 or three branches of this should be set by themselves and 

 given room to spread widely as they do in growth. 



Very different, again, are the arrangements which may 

 be made in low basin-like vessels with green twining or 

 climbing plants — Virginia Creeper and Bittersweet, for ex- 

 ample—enlivened by slenderer lengths of the Virgin's 

 Bower. This now bears its crop of starry white blossoms, 

 predicting the thick clusters of long-fringed fruit which will 

 mingle so effectively with the red and yellow foliage of a 

 later month. 



But the most abundant flowers of the early part of August 

 are those which even their admirers consent to call weeds, 

 and which often grow in an undeniably weedy fashion. 

 We do not refer to the Jewel-weed, which is now in season. 

 It is by no means weedy in habit, but it is useless to the 

 decorator, as it quickly droops when picked. We mean 

 the Milkweeds, the Thoroughworts, the Evening Primroses, 

 the tall Fireweed (Epilobium), the ubiquitous Carrot and 

 the other white-flowered Umbelliferar which plentifully 

 keep it company. 



Most beautiful of these, as regards its flowers, is the de- 

 spised Carrot. Weedy, indeed, is its habit, and very weedy 

 the aspect it bestows upon the fields and roadsides which 

 it overruns. But, closely examined, no flower in the world 

 is more exquisite, and indoors it should be used so that its 

 delicate countenance, not its thin, sprawling habit, is 

 emphasized. It may be mingled, not too profusely, in a 

 large bowl with Ferns and sprays of White Pine, so that its 

 heads scarcely surpass the ends of their leaves. Thus dis- 

 played it is a fitting decoration for the dining-table of a 

 princess ; and also when its heads are plucked from their 

 stems and floated close together in a flat dish — a mat of 

 fairy lace surrounded by a border of Ferns or of Elder-leaves. 

 The Milkweeds are hard to manage, for they are both 

 coarse in leaf and "floppy" in port. Perhaps they look 

 best when only a short piece of the stem is preserved and 

 they are placed in a low flat dish, so that their soft pleasant 

 colors and the beautiful structure of their small flowers 

 may be observed. 



As for the Thoroughworts, white and purple, they are 

 not attractive when closely examined, but in color and in 

 carriage they are charming. Tall arrangements of them, 

 white and purple grouped together, may well be set in the 

 darker corners of the house ; and, for once, great quantity 

 will not injure the quality of the effect, provided they are 

 massed, not with their heads all on a level, but with some 

 rising well above the others, so that their graceful dignity 

 shall not be concealed. The yellow of Golden-rod harmo- 

 nizes well with the dull purple of the Joe Pye Weed. So a 

 few sprays of the autumnal flower may be indulged in, for, 

 added to an arrangement of white and purple Thorough- 

 worts, it will make a bouquet of bright yet soft color 

 suitable to any spot, not too fully illumined, in almost any 

 room. If the hand at work is skillful, a few Carrots or 

 other umbelliferous plants may be added, and, perhaps, 

 one or two small Sunflowers. Simple arrangements are 

 safer as a rule, and this means, of course, combinations of 

 only one or two kinds of flowers. But complex arrange- 

 ments need not be altogether shunned ; and it is good 

 practice in interior decoration to gather a pile of varied 

 Thoroughworts, of white Umbellifera2, of Golden-rods, 

 Asters and slim Sunflowers, and see how a couple of great 

 vases may be filled with them, so that the general effect 

 shall be harmonious in color and outline, while the special 

 character of each head or spray shall be effectively brought 

 out. 



Four years ago (see vol. vi., page 301) we gave an 

 account of the Algonquin National Park of Ontario, 



and spoke with some enthusiasm of the foresight of the 

 people of the Dominion in setting apart for public use an 

 area of 1,300 square miles of land and 166 square miles of 

 water. The site itself is from 1,300 to 1,400 feet above the 

 sea-level, and there is no place in the province where so 

 many important streams take their rise. It is a place of 

 singular beauty, comprising a great variety of woodland 

 and water scenery, with primeval forests, elevated lakes 

 and streams which flow under overarching trees. Noble 

 game, fur-bearing animals and many kinds of birds make 

 their home here, so that as a game preserve, as a forest 

 reservation where experiments in systematic forestry can 

 be carried on, as a remnant of the original sylvan scenery 

 of the country which is rapidly being desolated, as a health 

 resort with its pure air and resinous odors, this park was 

 a worthy conception of wise and public-spirited people, 

 and seemed to mark an important advance in the develop- 

 ment of Ontario. 



Some letters lately published in Forest and Stream, of this 

 city, make us apprehensive that the reservation is not actu- 

 ally administered on the lines of its original conception. 

 It seems that much of the Pine timber is being cut, and the 

 landscape is mutilated and defaced in a hundred ways. A 

 delightful little lake is described which was a bit of natural 

 loveliness, wooded to the brink with old Pines. Around it 

 were little bays where Water Lilies grew and where deer 

 came to eat the buds. Now the Pine is cut away, the 

 beautiful island in the lake hardly shows a bit of verdure, 

 a big sawmill is going up at the mouth of the river, with 

 dams, lumber depots here and there, steamboats on the 

 lakes, and projected railroads, so that as a breeding-ground 

 for game much of the park is already useless. This cer- 

 tainly seems like desecration, and when it is added to this 

 that many of the streams have been dammed up so as to 

 kill the timber on their banks by drowning out the tree 

 roots and leaving the lakes surrounded by a fringe of death, 

 we may agree with the correspondent that Algonquin Park 

 will soon be like "a beautiful face seared with a red-hot 

 iron." Of course, we have no means of verifying the facts 

 of the case, but we sincerely trust that the men of the 

 Dominion will remember that the making of a few hundred 

 dollars now is a small matter when so much beauty and 

 so much genuine utility is destroyed for all time to come. 



Rosa seligera. 



WE have frequently called attention to the beauty and 

 value of the Prairie Rose as a garden plant. It has 

 been known for a century, although gardeners are only just 

 learning its value, and, curiously enough, no good figure of 

 it has been published until this week, when we print on 

 page 323 the reproduction of a drawing of flowering and 

 fruiting branches made by Mr. Faxon in the Arnold Arbo- 

 retum. 



Rosa setigera has been described so often that it is 

 unnecessary to do more than to refer again to its many 

 good qualities, its hardiness and rapid growth, its freedom 

 from the attacks of the insects which disfigure so many 

 Roses, and the charm of its lovely pink flowers which 

 open about the middle of July, when the flowering time of 

 most Roses is passed. 



Rosa setigera may be trained to a pillar after the fashion 

 usually adopted for the cultivation of its better-known 

 offsprings, the Baltimore Belle and Queen of the Prairie, 

 but to our taste it looks the best when allowed to grow 

 naturally, and to send out without restriction its long arching 

 shoots, which sometimes attain the length of twelve or fifteen 

 feet during the season, and in their second year produce 

 many short erect lateral branches, which bear the crowded 

 flower-clusters toward their extremities. Planted in rich 

 soil, with a dozen feet separating it from its nearest neigh- 

 bor, the Prairie Rose will grace any garden, and if 

 several hundred plants could be used together in one great 

 mass to cover some broad slope or steep bank in a large 

 park, an effect of surprising beauty would be obtained ; 



