34° 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 497. 



ties, and scarcely one in which an intelligent attempt has 

 been made to secure variety in the right way. When the 

 plantations are not varied in the wrong way — in the heter- 

 ogeneous way — they are monotonous and uninteresting. 

 Yet every acre of the " unimproved " countryside is filled 

 with suggestions how to secure variety in the right way — 

 in the harmonious way, 



We have in mind, for example, a certain thickly wooded 

 region where many summer homes have been recently 

 established. Its forests are diversified as only American 

 forests can be. But their predominant trees are Maples, 

 Hickories, Chestnuts, Beeches, Hemlocks and Oaks of sev- 

 eral kinds. In consequence, where the native growth has 

 not been obliterated in the neighborhood of a house, these 

 are the trees which most often have been preserved. 

 Naturally, a certain monotony of effect would ensue with- 

 out further planting ; and, therefore, almost every owner 

 has sought to relieve it by introducing striking exotics and 

 abnormal garden varieties of trees and shrubs. If the 

 intending planter would study the borders of the neigh- 

 boring forest it would supply him with variety enough. 

 Here and there he would find the Yellow Birch, with its 

 beautiful bark and delicate leafage ; the Tupelo, with its 

 dark and shining leaves and picturesque habit ; the Dog- 

 wood, with its unrivaled sheets of blossom ; the magnifi- 

 cent Tulip-tree and dignified Basswood ; the Red Cherry, 

 with its burden of gleaming fruit ; the Hop Hornbeam, 

 with its pale green tassels of seed ; the Sassafras, with its 

 leaves of peculiar shape and varied tones of green, and 

 the White Pine, so softly symmetrical in youth, so splen- 

 didly picturesque in age. These are the secondary trees of 

 the forest in this particular region. None of them is able 

 to reach its most beautiful development beneath the denser 

 shade and amid the stronger arms of its more prominent 

 associates. But any one of them, if planted where it 

 would have room to spread and preen itself in the wind 

 and the sunshine, would be much more ornamental than 

 the Swiss and Austrian Pines, the Colorado Spruces, the 

 European Maples, the Copper or Weeping Beeches, the cut- 

 leaved Birches, the sickly-looking striped Negundos, the 

 piebald Retinosporas, the golden Elders, or the stiff Altheas 

 which have been profusely planted in their stead in the 

 pleasure-grounds of the neighborhood. And, of course, 

 the general effect of a place adorned with them as com- 

 panions for the larger trees of native growth would present 

 an harmonious effect which is now the very rarest merit 

 that characterizes a small American country place. 



William L. Bradley. 



THE recent gift of twenty thousand dollars to Harvard 

 College by Miss Abby A. Bradley in honor of her 

 father was briefly noted in these columns a few weeks 

 ago, when it was stated that the income of this endow- 

 ment, to be known as the William L. Bradley Fund, is to 

 be expended by the Director of the Arnold Arboretum to 

 advance the scientific knowledge of trees. At the request 

 of President Eliot, of Harvard, a sketch of the life of this 

 energetic man was prepared by Miss Bradley, and as 

 showing something of his enthusiasm for the subject 

 which the fund commemorates, we publish the sketch now, 

 with Miss Bradley's permission : 



William L. Bradley, late of Hingham, Massachusetts, was 

 born in Cheshire, Connecticut, May 25th, 1826. His father, Levi 

 Bradley, was a prosperous farmer of Cheshire, and the son 

 lived on the farm until the age of thirteen, when he entered 

 mercantile life. 



An unusual interest in agricultural pursuits determined his 

 career. His attention having been attracted by certain dis- 

 coveries in Germany of a method for producing chemical 

 fertilizers, he decided in i860 to embark in this new and unde- 

 veloped enterprise. Many years were spent in laborious 

 research in the laboratory and in experiments in the factory 

 and field before the business was profitably established. But 

 by force of high character, an indomitable will and great busi- 

 ness sagacity, in face of obstacles which would have daunted 



a nature less resolute and far-seeing, he successfully founded 

 the manufacture of chemical fertilizers in this country, and 

 built up a business which during his lifetime became the 

 largest of its kind in the world. He was also one of the first 

 to enter the phosphate mining industry. In the early days of 

 the first mining in South Carolina, and later in the more recent 

 discoveries in Florida, he was one of the largest investors and 

 one of the most progressive operators. 



With a decided natural taste tor the cultivation and improve- 

 ment of the soil, he had also a great love of the beautiful in 

 nature, with an especial fondness for trees. As a boy on his 

 father's farm he spent much time alone in the woods and 

 studied their various forms and habits. There was no tree or 

 wayside shrub of that neighborhood which he did not know. 



At the age of twenty-five he was able to own a large tract of 

 land in Meriden, Connecticut, where he then lived. This land 

 he improved extensively, draining, laying out roads, planting 

 trees and carefully guarding the woodland. The possession 

 and improvement of land, as years went on, became the 

 recreation and passion of his life. He owned large tracts in 

 nearly every Atlantic state from Maine to Florida. Among 

 other farms, he owned a half interest in Montpelier, President 

 Madison's beautiful estate in Virginia. The old manor house 

 was repaired and made habitable and the exhausted land was 

 brought into a high state of cultivation. 



But it was during the later years of his life, at Hingham, 

 when he had partially laid aside the cares of his great business, 

 that he chiefly indulged his taste for planting trees, laying out 

 roads and for the various occupations of landscape-gardening. 

 Trees were planted along the roadside bordering his estate 

 and thousands on the open lands. A large nursery of ever- 

 green and deciduous trees was established. The wooded land 

 on this estate was his especial delight, and many precautions 

 were taken to guard it from fire or injury. Any particularly 

 fine tree was brought into relief and given every opportunity 

 to develop, while the shrubs were carefully preserved, and 

 hundreds of native growtli were transplanted. He entered 

 into this congenial pursuit with the same energy and enthu- 

 siasm, and with the same breadth of spirit, that distinguished 

 his business career. 



It was here amid the work he loved so well, and with many 

 plans for further improvement still unmatured, that he was 

 stricken with his last illness, and died December 15th, 1894. 



The New View of the Hortulana Plums. 



WHEN in 1892 Professor Bailey proposed the species 

 Prunus hortulana to include the Wild Goose Plum 

 and its nearest relatives, it was at first a relief and after- 

 ward a puzzle to horticulturists. It was a relief to have 

 these anomalous forms separated from Prunus Americana 

 and from P. angustifolia where they had previously caused 

 confusion ; and it was gratifying to have them separately 

 characterized, even though it was very difficult to make 

 the specific description fit all the varieties. But to maintain 

 a description for the species which would fit all the varie- 

 ties has been an ever-growing puzzle. And thus a second 

 time Professor Bailey has brought us relief by his decision * 

 that this is " a mongrel type of Plums, ... no doubt, 

 hybrids " of Prunus Americana and P. angustifolia. 



This new view of the Hortulana Plums seems likely to 

 find much readier currency among pomologists than did 

 the distinct species view. Indeed, some reputable horti- 

 culturists have never accepted the separate species notion ; 

 and no two anywhere or at any time have fully agreed 

 upon the varieties which were to be referred to the species. 



These cultivated varieties present an inextricable confu- 

 sion of closely graded differences of character passing 

 without a break from Prunus Americana, through the Miner 

 group (Bailey's P. hortulana, var. Mineri), then through 

 the Wild Goose group, and by way of such varieties as 

 Schley, Clifford and Macedonia into the true Chicasaws. 

 There is absolutely no line of demarcation, however dim, 

 among these varieties. Such a series of forms cannot be 

 conveniently doled out into species, even when we take 

 the most advanced evolutionary view of what constitutes 

 a species. But as soon as the Wild Goose group is under- 

 stood to be a company of hybrids the matter becomes 



* L. H. Bailey, Cornell Exp. Sta. Bull., 131, p. 170, March, 1897. See also Bot. Ga 

 Dec, 1896, p. 461. 



