May 2, 1894.] 



Garden and Forest. 



179 



years ago. I would add dial: the netting I then used is still in use 

 and looks as good as ever. I would not allow any one to use 

 the unsightly pea-brush in my garden, if done without cost to 

 me. The netting cost three-fourths of a cent the square foot 

 over five years ago. „, „ „, 



Raleigh, N.C. W.F.Massey. 



Notes from a Missouri Garden. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — -The worst spring "backset" ever known in south- 

 west Missouri has passed away, leaving me more firmly con- 

 vinced than ever of the value of our wild plants for domesti- 

 cation in the garden. After the icy weather was over, I took 

 a two-days' journey over parts of this and the adjoining county 

 of Benton, in northern Arkansas. Everywhere was evidence 

 of serious damage. One-third of the Peach-trees were killed 

 outright, the too-forward leaves of the Crab-apples, Lilacs and 

 Roses were still clinging to the bushes, crisped as by fire, and 

 early gardens were practically ruined. From the time we left 

 Oak Lawn behind us, until we reached home again, we saw 

 not a solitary cultivated flower, excepting those in windows ; 

 and yet the woods and valleys were gay with bud and bloom. 

 There were various species of Violas, Phlox, Dicentras, Del- 

 phiniums, Claytonias, Polemoniums and Anemones, together 

 with budding Dodecatheons, Camassias and Aquilegias, varied 

 and plentiful enough to have made beautiful every one of the 

 empty, frost-scorched yards we passed. How many so-called 

 garden flowers have we that would endure such hardship as 

 these wildings have done and yet show no trace of suffering ? 

 Of course, we must have the Holland bulbs, which make rain- 

 bows of our early gardens, and many other beauties from 

 abroad ; but these sturdy natives, if less showy, are not less 

 charming, and they add a touch of home poetry to the spring 

 garden which, to me, seems indispensable. And how easy it 

 is to get them ! A trip to the woodland or meadow — itself an 

 occasion of delight — a few moments' work with spade or hoe, 

 and a basketful of plants is secured that will blossom in next 

 spring's garden with such frost-defying exotics as Scillas and 

 Chionodoxas and Saxifrages. 



Pineviile, Mo. Lora S. La Mance. 



Sechium edule. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — I read with interest your note on the Chocho, Sechium 

 edule, in No. 321. Another popular name of this fruit in 

 tropical countries, where it is much grown, is Chayota, and in 

 Louisiana it is commonly known as Vegetable Pear. An in- 

 teresting fact not mentioned in your note is that the fruit often 

 germinates before it drops from the vine, or after it is gath- 

 ered and laid away. The blossom-end opens a little, and a 

 strong shoot comes forth that will grow several inches in 

 length before withering. In propagating, the whole fruit is 

 planted, preferably one that has thus sprouted. 



A correspondent in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has grown this 

 vegetable for a great many years, and first called my attention 

 to it. She mulches the old root in the fall, and in the spring it 

 sprouts up vigorously and fruits freely. I have tried it two or 

 three times in this state, but each time the vine withered and 

 died before reaching the fruiting-stage, and suddenly, as if at- 

 tacked at the root by some insect. A neighbor had better suc- 

 cess with it, raising a vine which produced a quantity of fruit ; 

 but it failed to appear above ground the second year. Perhaps 

 the light sandy soil of this state is not so congenial to it as a 

 heavier one. The fruit, cooked in the same manner as squash, 

 was equally as palatable. If itcanbedependedupon togrowand 

 fruit in this state it would make a very valuable addition to our 

 vegetable gardens. 



Jessamine, Fla. Walter N. Pike. 



Recent Publications. 



Landscape-gardening 171 Japan. By Josiah Conder. Kelly 

 & Walsh, Yokohama, and Charles Scribner's Sons, New 

 York. 



The author of this work was for some years Professor of 

 Architecture and Architect to the Imperial Japanese Gov- 

 ernment, and he has, therefore, had exceptional facilities 

 for studying the different phases of Japanese art. One of 

 his books, entitled Flowers of Japan and the Art of Floral 

 Arrangement, is, altogether, the best English treatise on 

 a subject in which the Japanese are recognized masters. 

 Something like a year ago the first volume of the present 



work appeared, and it was reviewed in vol. vi., page 41S, 

 of Garden and Forest. We there explained that the present 

 school of landscape-gardening in Japan has hardly any- 

 thing in common with our own ideas of the art ; that the 

 Japanese gardeners do not attempt to reproduce natural 

 scenes, but to arrange natural and artificial objects with a 

 view to their symbolical and ceremonial significance ; and 

 inasmuch as western nations are ignorant of Japanese tra- 

 ditions, we can have no clear idea of the esoteric meaning of 

 a garden which to an educated native may speak in intel- 

 ligible language of poetry, religion, philosophy or history. 

 To our uninstructed eyes there is little that is restful in the 

 multiplicity of detail in these gardens, and little that makes 

 appeal to our imagination either in the way of pleasing motive 

 or of broad and dignified treatment. Nevertheless, the reader 

 will find very much in the subject to interest him by its strange- 

 ness and novelty, and much that will enlarge or modify his 

 conceptions of the nature and functions of Japanese art. 

 He will find, for example, a long chapter devoted to stones, 

 their sex (for most inanimate objects in Japanese gardens 

 are either male or female), their nomenclature and symbol- 

 ism. He will gather few ideas which he can make use of 

 in our own gardens from this chapter, or from others, on 

 lanterns, pagodas, water basins and wells, but he will see 

 that to the Japanese there is a profound meaning in what 

 he would consider trivial. But, on the other hand, he will 

 find accounts of arrangements which are beautiful in 

 themselves apart from their symbolic significance ; and in 

 the figures where stepping-stones are used instead of gravel 

 walks, in the chapters on gates and enclosures, in the illus- 

 trations of neat and trim bamboo fences he will find 

 many devices which he would like to transplant into our 

 own parks and gardens. 



What we have said applies exclusively to the art of gar- 

 dening as at present practiced in Japan. In former years 

 there were gardens there designed either by Chinese artists 

 or by Japanese who were under Chinese influence which 

 are still models of beauty as we understand it. Mr. Conder 

 has written comparatively little about these parks, because 

 they are not distinctively Japanese, and a treatise on their 

 artistic qualities and value would be a discussion of the 

 canons of the best landscape-art as it is found in America 

 and Europe. Again, the diagrams and illustrations of the 

 first volume, which are taken from Japanese works, while 

 they are adequate to aid in explaining the text, are too 

 coarse and rude to set forth the refinements of natural 

 scenery. 



Readers will welcome, therefore, what is really a 

 second volume of Mr. Conder's work, but what is called a 

 supplement to his original treatise. This volume is a collec- 

 tion of excellent heliographic plates reproduced from photo- 

 graphs of garden-scenes by Mr. K. Ogawa. The scenes illus- 

 trated in some of these plates are described in the earlier 

 volume, but all the pictures in the new volume are ac- 

 companied by good descriptive text. Among them are 

 some beautiful examples of natural scenery as well as 

 typical illustrations of the best garden-work of the earlier 

 and better style of the country. All of them are interest- 

 ing and well executed, but some of the garden scenes 

 can hardly be called beautiful subjects, while in a few 

 instances the lines of certain architectural features and 

 the stone margins of artificial water make a singularly 

 disagreeable impression. The volume, however, is of it- 

 self a beautiful work of art, and it is a most helpful sup- 

 plement to the original text. In reality it broadens the 

 scope of the work, so that it covers a region which the 

 native drawings could not illustrate, although they are 

 perfectly competent to explain the technical matter of the 

 earlier volume. The two volumes taken together form the 

 most complete and satisfactory treatise in our language 

 which has yet been attempted on Japanese gardening ; 

 and this means a great deal, for, as we have before said, 

 these people, so remarkable for a subtle perception of 

 beauty, find in their gardens the truest expression or re- 

 flection of their own character and its limitations. 



