242 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 330. 



ill this matter, the aspect of our city may thus be greatly 

 improved, but discretion is always needful when a combi- 

 nation of architecture and of plants is in question, and the 

 many attractive qualities of the Japanese Ivy should put us 

 on our guard against its excessive use. It grows very 

 quickly, thrives with little soil and in an urban atmosphere. 

 It is free from insects, and while it clings so closely to the 

 walls as to form an impenetrable shield against rain, it 

 neither harbors dampness nor injures the solidity of a brick 

 or stone surface. Nor is its deciduous habit altogether a 

 defect. In winter the tracery of its leafless branches upon 

 a background of gray stone has a delicate beauty of its 

 own, and in the spring the gradual transformation of this 

 exquisite gray net-work to a beautiful drapery of green gives 

 an ephemeral charm to this vine which is lacking in the con- 

 constant evergreen. Nevertheless, we cannot agree with 

 the writer who recently declared that " nothing can be 

 more pleasant to the eye than a house-front ensvvathed in 

 the rich greenness of this plant, and the more it is used on 

 our public and private buildings the better. 



It should be remembered that in any combination of 

 architecture and foliage the structure itself is the important 

 element. Foliage should be its decoration, its garment, 

 but not its shroud. It should be draped in green, but not 

 ensvvathed in it. And thus the luxurious growth of the 

 Japanese Ivy renders it in one sense our most dangerous 

 creeper, for, unless closely watched, it will soon cover the 

 building so completely as to obliterate all details of orna- 

 ment, and even mar the clearness of its outline, thus forc- 

 ing upon the mind the impression that the sole purpose of 

 the architect had been to produce a frame- work which 

 should support this mass of living green. We see an ex- 

 ample of this in Grace Church. The effect of this structure 

 was greatly improved by the planting of Japanese Ivy 

 about it, but upon some portions the Ivy has been per- 

 mitted to grow so luxuriantly that they look now, not like 

 stones draped with vines, but like actual walls and pinna- 

 cles of leaves, and though this effect may attract and 

 amuse the careless observer, it can give no pleasure to a 

 cultivated taste. 



It is fortunate for the effect of the reservoir on Fifth 

 Avenue that its long walls were planted with Wistarias be- 

 fore Japanese Ivy became popular, and that these are not 

 allowed to grow above a certain height. If the whole 

 structure were covered with such a green shroud as 

 swathes its central pavilion we should see simply a rec- 

 tangular mass of green instead of a dignified building 

 richly draped with foliage; and, besides the loss of form 

 and detail, and the apparent loss of stability which would 

 result from such treatment, there would be also a loss in 

 beauty of color, for the Japanese Ivy displays its full 

 beauty oidy when its many summer shades of green or its 

 rich autumn tints are shown against the background of 

 soft gray stone. 



Moreover, various kinds of buildings differ greatly 

 as regards the amount of foliage that may rightly be 

 trained against their walls. Irregular or elaborately fea- 

 tured buildings, modeled after the romantic styles of 

 architecture, may be more profusely draped than the very 

 symmetrical or severe ones which represent the classical 

 styles. We realize this when we think how the beauty of 

 a ruined abbey in England is enhanced by a thick growth 

 of Ivy, but how greatly the beauty of the ruins of the Par- 

 thenon would be decreased by a growth of the same sort. 

 When a building is as severe in architectural expression as 

 our pseudo-Egyptian Tombs, or when it is associated 

 with such ideas as attach to the Tombs, any planting of 

 vines against it would, perhaps, be a mistake. The Jef- 

 ferson Market likewise contains a prison, but its name does 

 not convey so grim a meaning to the ear, and the fact that 

 it exhibits an ornate gothic style would justify some adorn- 

 ment with vines. But it is a question whether any such 

 adornment would be advantageous in the case of the City 

 Hall, the beauty of which resides in its symmetrical dig- 

 nity and the perfect proportion of its parts. Certainly, if 



it is to receive any decoration of this kind, the work should 

 be done with the utmost discretion, and the foliage should 

 not be allowed to grow above its basement story. On 

 the Post Office vines would be distinctly out of place, both 

 because of the position of the building and of its architec- 

 tural character. A drapery of vines would be so out of 

 keeping with its solid and formal aspect that it would 

 intensity rather than conceal its lack of architectural 

 excellence. 



An artist in planting would find it of much interest thus 

 to pass in review all the public buildings of our city and • 

 decide where a garment of foliage would be an improve- 

 ment, just how large a quantity would be desirable in each 

 case, and how it should be disposed. But enough has 

 been said, we think, to show that an artist's eye is needed, 

 not only to regulate the initial plantings of vines or creep- 

 ers, but to control their aftergrowth. The same considera- 

 tions apply, of course, to domestic buildings. Among 

 these we find so few that have any real beauty of archi- 

 tecture that their "enswathing" in green would displease 

 the eye only by reason of the general fact that a solid 

 wall of green similating architectural forms is an offense 

 against good taste. But the better a house is the less 

 should it be enclosed with vines. We should be sorry, 

 for example, if the white Vanderbilt house on Fifth Ave- 

 nue were wholly hidden from view during half the year 

 by even the most beautiful growth of Japanese Ivy ; and it 

 would be a worse mistake to swathe the Lenox Library 

 wholly in foliage, for greater care is needed with public 

 than with private buildings, and in general the more mon- 

 umental a structure the less appropriate is an overplus of 

 green drapery. 



Pacific Coast Seedling Fruits 



HORTICULTURISTS on the Pacific Coast are rapidly 

 supplying themselves with new varieties of fruits 

 adapted to local requirements. It is probable that all the 

 standard Peaches, Almonds and Apricots of to-day, and 

 many of the standard sorts of other fruits, will in time be 

 discarded, and that names now familiar to every producer 

 and consumer will in a few years be known only in the 

 history of pomology. To illustrate the extent to which 

 seedling fruits are now being propagated, I have compiled 

 these notes from personal correspondence and from local 

 catalogues. The list is, however, far from being complete. 



Amongthe more famous seedling Apples Marshall's Red 

 takes high rank. This bears a large, deep-red winter 

 apple of fine quality. Sonoma, a red-striped winter apple, 

 and Santa Clara King, a yellow autumn variety, are both 

 of California origin. Palouse is a choice winter apple from 

 Washington, and is being extensively planted. Violet, a 

 new red winter apple from lone, Amador County, Cali- 

 fornia, has been widely propagated ; it compares in size 

 with the Gloria Mundi. 



Humboldt, Trinity and Siskiyou counties have old 

 Apple-orchards grown from seed, and varieties of local 

 reputation are being disseminated. As an illustration of 

 the possibility in this class of fruits, as of other classes, I 

 venture to give a recent experience, of my own. On 

 December 12th, 1892, returning from a visit to Mount Ham- 

 ilton, the stage stopped at Hall Valley, a small, rich moun- 

 tain-basin about two thousand feet above the ocean. Pro- 

 fessor Barnard, who happened to be on the same stage, 

 called my attention to a seedling Apple declared to be the 

 best in the neighborhood, and grafts of this Apple, known 

 as the "Brakefield," were obtained. Its parentage is Golden 

 Pippin, but it is more evenly round, more solid and larger 

 than the parent, and well striped with red, and of first-rate 

 quality. The seed was planted by an old Cherokee woman 

 some thirty years ago. The fruit of this Apple is preferred 

 by some of the professors of the Lick Observatory to any 

 of the standard sorts. The growth of the tree is something 

 like that of Limber Twig. 



( 'nlifornians are planting extensively several seedling 



