208 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 326. 



mum lactustre ; Phloxes, especially those belonging to the 

 decussata type, and Pyrethrum uliginosum are all desirable. I 

 might add some of the best Tritonias, but as these are not per- 

 fectly hardy they would need storage in cellars to make sure of 

 saving them. 



Seeds of biennials, including Hollyhocks, Canterbury Bells, 

 Foxgloves, Sweet Williams and Myosotis, as well as Pansies 

 and Violas, may be sown any time between now and the end 

 of June, and transplanted into nursery beds. Canterbury 

 Bells and Foxgloves make excellent pot-plants, and used with 

 Astilbe Japonica or Deutzia gracilis, are very effective for 

 piazza decoration. 



Wellesley, Mass. 1 . L). Hatjulcl. 



Notes on Irises. 



IRIS LUTCIENS is the most interesting Iris of the week. 

 This is one of Professor Forster's seedlings, which, as indi- 

 cated by the name, is a cross between I. lupina and I. Cien- 

 gialti. It is a plant of attractive habit, the leaves being a foot 

 long, and the flowering stems rise to double this height. The 

 flowers are of medium size and fine form, with large falls and 

 somewhat larger standards. The edges of the standards and 

 falls are slightly frilled. The coloring is a pleasing shade of 

 heliotrope, with veinings of a darker shade of the same color 

 permeating all the petals. There is no hint of red in this 

 flower, and it is a distinct and valuable addition to the garden. 

 Its flowering season seems to be intermediate between those 

 of its parents. Professor Forster's ingenious nomenclature 

 sometimes produces curious euphony, but is a practical and 

 common-sense invention which is a welcome relief to the or- 

 dinary method of naming hybrid plants. These names are 

 usually unmeaning and an extra burden on the memory of the 

 cultivator who interests himself in the origin of his plants. 

 The new nomenclature is simple and full of meaning. 



Iris Redouteana, a variety of I. lurida, is a very dwarf, richly 

 colored flower, which is quietly effective. The flower is small, 

 with broad standards gracefully disposed, and the long narrow 

 falls are lateral. The color is a rich claret-red. 



Iris Florentina, with its large, nearly white, flowers, is 

 one of the most charming plants of the season, and 

 should be in every garden. It is a reliable garden va- 

 riety, and its exquisitely colored flowers have a patrician 

 air, notwithstanding this is one of the commonest of plants. 

 It is also commercially valuable, and many tons of its 

 roots are each year gathered, dried and prepared to make 

 the orris-root of trade. The finer grades of this root are used 

 by perfumers, usually to simulate violet. It is also largely used 

 in tooth-powders and for sachets. Of late years oils, both 

 liquid and concrete, have been extracted from the roots, and 

 these have proved useful to the soap-maker as well as to the 

 perfumer. This Iris is also the only officinal species, being 

 sometimes used in medical practice as a cathartic, and in 

 large doses as an emetic. It is one of the older remedies, 

 however, and is seldom used now. Other species of Irises 

 are also in flower now, but none are specially noticeable, 

 except I. cristata, our little crested southern Iris, which, in 

 beauty and distinctness, is second to no dwarf Iris, and is 

 besides a valuable plant for a front border, where its flat, 

 creeping shoots are now covered with its cheerful light-blue 

 flowers. 



Elizabeth, N. J. 7- N. Gerard. 



Correspondence. 

 Fruit Prospects in Central New York. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest: 



Sir, — The Apple-trees in this section have blossomed freely, 

 and the prospect is excellent for a good crop. This is the year 

 lor an abundance of Northern Spies, Greenings and Spitzen- 

 bergs. Baldwins were not so free in blooming, but a good 

 crop of Jonathans and Pippins of all sorts may be expected. 

 For nearly all varieties of Pears there is a splendid outlook, 

 excepting, possibly, Flemish Beauty. I observe that Anjou, 

 Buffum, Rostiezer, Louise Bonne, Kieffer, Onondaga, Clair- 

 geau, Tyson, Lawrence, Sheldon and Bartlett are all in prom- 

 ising condition. Plums, notwithstanding the enormous crop 

 of last year, are again well set with fruit, as are also all kinds 

 of Cherries. Grapes and Quinces blossoming on new wood 

 are unfolding a wonderful bloom. A few varieties of Grapes 

 were injured in the vine by the open winter. 



Among small fruits, strawberries may be quite surely 

 counted on to be abundant. Red Raspberries, for some rea- 

 son, are killed back one-third, and the crop reduced accord- 

 ingly. Black Raspberries are healthy and full of bloom. 



Blackberries are only moderate in set of fruit. The weather 

 is every way favorable to the pollinization of fruit, insects 

 abundant, and no cold winds and rains. 

 Clinton, N. Y. E. P. P. 



The Beaub 



of Rural England. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — The beauty of rural England, so famous in song and 

 story, is due to a combination of causes in which a national 

 love of purely artistic landscape beauty has played but a sub- 

 ordinate part. In art, and landscape-art is no exception, we 

 seek for beauty of proportion, symmetry of form and harmonv 

 of color, and in the arrangement of masses of color it seems 

 to me that the formal gardens of England do not reach that 

 perfection of taste which one expects to find in an old country. 

 Fortunately, it is almost impossible to mar the rich harmony 

 produced by the intermingling of delicate pearly grays and 

 soft greens which are everywhere in England the prevailing 

 tints in the landscape, for wherever color is introduced to re- 

 lieve the soft monotony, it too often strikes a discordant note. 



The favorite border-plant last summer, both in public parks 

 and private gardens, was Ageratum, and the contrast of the 

 dull bluish purple of its feathery bloom with the vivid green 

 of the grass was by no means grateful to the eye. Twenty 

 years ago, Richard Grant White, commenting upon the dress 

 of Englishwomen, spoke of their great fondness for shades of 

 purple, and this fondness seems to have been passed on to the 

 gardener of to-day. Besides the Ageratum, there were great 

 borders and beds of dark purple Heliotrope, which is also too 

 dull in color to give pleasure in masses. Within a little trian- 

 gular grass-plot, under the very shadow of Westminster 

 Abbey, where only grass was needed, little formal beds of 

 Ageratum and dark Heliotrope were growing side by side. 

 Another favorite border-plant was Lobelia, and the bright, 

 hard, cold blue of its blossoms looked harder and colder 

 against the vivid green of the grass. Geraniums were mar- 

 velously rich in color, bu' the scarlet and pink varieties, 

 which, planted in separate beds, would have made oases of 

 color in the vast expanse of green, were either intermingled 

 or placed so near together that they seemed to stare each 

 other out of countenance. 



The use of flowers for table-decorations is universal, but 

 nowhere was the best taste shown in their selection or arrange- 

 ment. At Oxford, at an entertainment given at the annual 

 meeting of the Royal British Nurses' Association, royalty was 

 present in the person of the Princess Christian. The luncheon 

 was served in the beautiful hall of Magdalene College, and on 

 such an occasion one might surely expect a profusion of flow- 

 ers, arranged with some attempt at grace; but the only orna- 

 ments on the tables prepared for the inferior guests were 

 clumsy pots of an ordinary pink Begonia, placed at regular 

 intervals, while on the table presided over by Princess Chris- 

 tian was a small epergne containing a handful of flowers in 

 which, however, were the inevitable pink and scarlet Gerani- 

 ums in close proximity. In the window-boxes the blending 

 of bright colors was rather pleasing, as these always contrasted 

 well with the rich gray of the stone cottages in the country, 

 or with the dingy gray of the houses of the city. The flowers 

 for sale, both in the streets of London and in the smaller cities, 

 were inferior in quality to those offered on the streets of New 

 York. Many of them, indeed, were so poor and straggling 

 that they seemed fit only for an excuse to beg. These found 

 a ready sale, even among the poor. In short, I drew the 

 inference, though possibly on insufficient grounds, that with 

 the English love of flowers is an instinct due primarily to the 

 fact that these flowers are children of the soil, " the little sisters 

 of the fields," to use St. Francis' phrase, and dear to every Eng- 

 lishman and woman from the thousand associations of home 

 and childhood. It is a human affection, and, therefore, one 

 to command respect, but it is not aesthetic, and for this reason, 

 perhaps, the English seemed less particular than Americans 

 are that the flowers they love should possess grace of form, 

 fineness of texture and delicacy of color. 



Orange, N.J. 



A. McC. Hal lock. 



Recent Publications. 



L' Horticulture Fran^aise, ses Pr ogres el ses Conqucles depuis 

 1789. Par Charles Baltet. Paris, Librairie Agricole et Li- 

 brairie G. Masson. 



This handsomely printed pamphlet of some 150 pages 

 contains an address made in the Trocadero Palace during 

 the International Exposition of 1S89 by Monsieur Baltet, a 

 well-known horticulturist of Troyes, who was a member 



