July 18, 1894.] 



Garden and Forest. 



281 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office : Tribune Building. New York. 



Conducted by Professor C. S. Sargent. 



ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POST OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. Y. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, JULY 18, 1894. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Article :— The Use of Color in Our Parks 281 



The Gardens of the Early New England Colonists. . . Daniel Denison Slade. 282 



Botanical Notes from Texas.— XXI E. N. Plank. 2S3 



Entomological : — A Scale Insect on Plums, f With figure. ). Professor S. A. Bench. 284 

 New or Little-known Plants: — Deutzia discolor, var. purpurascens. (With 



figure.) 2S4 



Plant Notes 284 



Cultural Department : — The Rock-garden T. D. H. 285 



Hardy Plants which Flower in Early July F. H. Horsford. 286 



Carnations and Pinks y. N. Gerard. 286 



Garden Strawberries E. O. Orpei. 287 



Raspberries E. P. Powell. 2S8 



Summer Pruning ft. S. 2S8 



Correspondence :— Injuries by Seventeen-year Locusts D. G. 288 



Recent Publications ". 288 



Notes , 289 



Illustrations: — Branch of Plum infested with scale, Lecaniumcerasifex, Fig. 47. 284 

 Deutzia discolor, var. purpurascens. Fig. 48 207 



The Use of Color in Our Parks. 



NOT long ago it was stated in an article in Gartenflora 

 that the tendency of garden art in our eastern states 

 is to " banish all pattern-beds, and, to a great degree, even 

 flow-ers and bright-hued foliage-plants " from our public 

 parks. This is undoubtedly correct as to pattern-beds, if 

 we are to understand by the term such eccentricities in 

 design as those created by the German artist who deco- 

 rates the landscape in Washington Park, Chicago. But if 

 we are to understand by pattern-beds all formal arrange- 

 ments, we apprehend the statement is too sweeping. It is 

 pleasant to observe, even in our private pleasure-grounds, 

 a tendency to more quiet treatment, although there are still 

 some excesses in the way of conventional floral effects, 

 but we are afraid that there is no immediate prospect that 

 even carpet-bedding of the most conspicuous sort will be 

 altogether dispensed with. Some of our public pleasure- 

 grounds, like the Boston Public Garden, are still spotted 

 with too many beds of violent color, and there is little fear 

 that the taste for naturalistic effect will become so strong 

 that it will not tolerate formal planting in places where 

 such planting is desirable. If there are comparatively few 

 pattern-beds in the great public parks of our eastern states, 

 it is owing to the fact that much the greater part of 

 our park area is naturalistic in design, and, therefore, 

 affords few appropriate places for formal features. Wherever 

 the treatment is semi-architectural, as, for example, on the 

 the terrace in Prospect Park, in Brooklyn, formal arrange- 

 ments of flowers are often effectively employed. Where 

 natural elements predominate, and architectural elements 

 are subordinate, as is the rule in our public parks, formal 

 gardening is out of place ; but in private grounds these 

 conditions are often reversed, and in such cases, so far as 

 we have observed, there is no attempt made on the part 

 of architects or landscape-gardeners, either in theory or 

 practice, «to banish formal gardening arrangements. 



It is quite easy for one who has an absorbing admiration 

 for pattern-gardens to have no affection for, or apprecia- 

 tion of, flowers for their own sake. It is the picture which 

 is admired — the flag or the calendar or the map of the 



world — and not the individual flowers which compose it. 

 Indeed, when flowers of a given color are lacking it is a 

 common practice of Chicago artists to use stones and shells 

 or bits of glass to supply the proper tint. Opposition to de- 

 signs of this sort, therefore, does not imply any objection to 

 flowers. The suggestion that there is a tendency to banish 

 flowers from our pleasure-grounds would never occur to 

 one who has noted the wonderful wealth of trees and 

 shrubs with showy flowers which our parks contain. Our 

 country is unusually rich in plants of this sort, and they 

 are the special glory of many parks. Such natural wood 

 borders as those found in Druid Hill Park, Baltimore, and 

 in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, are brilliant with color in 

 spring and early summer, and so are the artificial planta- 

 tions in Central Park. No display of pattern-beds could be 

 as gorgeous as the masses of Rhododendron-flowers which 

 unfold themselves every spring in the ravine at the north- 

 ern end of Central Park ; no panorama could be more bril- 

 liant in color than its drives and walks when the For- 

 sythias, Amelanchiers, Japan Quinces, Spirasas, Dogwoods, 

 Judas-trees, Paulownias, Azaleas, Catalpas and many more 

 succeed each other in bloom ; and the magnificent rich- 

 ness of color which flowering shrubs can present is the 

 delight and marvel of all who see the small parks and gar- 

 dens of Washington in spring and early summer. 



These floral displays are transitory, it is true, but one 

 follows another so closely that no season lacks beauty of 

 color, and it may be said that even pattern-beds are but 

 short-lived in our climate. The plants do not well cover 

 the soil until July, and they perish with the first touch of 

 frost, so that, except for this short intermediate season, 

 these raw beds are blotches on the face of nature, while a 

 fine tree or shrub is beautiful, not only when in bloom, but 

 throughout the season, and even when winter has robbed 

 it of its foliage. Nor are flowering herbaceous plants neg- 

 lected, as every one knows who has seen the Water-lilies 

 in Central Park or the plantations at the head of the 

 Mall, or the profusion of more modest flowers which are 

 scattered throughout its groves and glades and amid the 

 grass of its lawns. The tendency, too, is to introduce more 

 wild flowers, which, though inconspicuous in themselves, 

 form great masses of color, associated with turf and shrub- 

 bery, as nature dictates ; while every year the shrub-bor- 

 ders in all our parks grow brighter with the increased use 

 of hardy perennial herbs. 



The statement that there is a tendency in the eastern 

 states to "banish bright-hued foliage-plants'' from the 

 parks is, we are glad to say, more strictly accurate. Small- 

 sized plants with leaves of abnormal color are sometimes 

 useful in formal arrangements, but it is a gratifying fact 

 that the employment of shrubs and trees with yellow, red- 

 dish white, streaked or spotted leaves is less profuse here 

 than it is in European parks. Of course, this does not 

 mean that there is any monotony of color in our woods and 

 shrubberies, for between the pallid grays of the Ela;agnus 

 and the Lead-plant to the almost blackish tone of many 

 Pines, there is a wide range of color through all the greens 

 and kindred tints. But there is a radical difference between 

 the use of flowers and the use of bright-hued foliage in 

 producing those conspicuous color-effects, which, when 

 properly used, are pleasing to the eye. Nature has pointed 

 out this difference, and the artist who keeps her methods 

 in viewr may mass his flowers profusely with a most beau- 

 tiful result. A meadow full of Buttercups, masses of 

 white Dogwood-flowers mingled with the coral sprays of 

 the Judas-tree and the paler pink of the Crab-apple, banks 

 of pink and white Mountain Laurel, hollows filled with 

 the shaded crimsons and purples of Rhododendron-blos- 

 soms, these and a hundred other combinations offer an 

 abundance of bright tints in large masses, which give ex- 

 quisite pleasure. But "in our temperate latitudes nature 

 uses variegated foliage very sparingly. Indeed, bright- 

 colored leaves are hardly seen at all, except for a few days 

 when spring suddenly bursts upon us, or when, in autumn, 

 all the woods are aflame with £rors;eous tints. Even then 



