322 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 338. 



and the other does not. But he will always understand 

 that some statues may please and interest him, whereas 

 had he seen only poor works, he would have remained 

 forever indifferent to the claims of art, and skeptical 

 as to its possibilities of affording him pleasure. Among 

 the thousands of men and boys who feel genuine pleasure 

 every time they pass the Nathan Hale statue are many 

 who, in future years, as private individuals or members of 

 corporations, societies or civic councils, will have the 

 power to influence the aspect of New York. Who can 

 doubt that the lesson it has taught them with regard to the 

 pleasure-giving power of works of art will then be remem- 

 bered, and to our city's profit ? 



But there appear no such signs of popular admiration if 

 one watches the other new statues we have named ; and 

 no signs of their having touched the imagination or the 

 historic curiosity of our people if one studies the news- 

 papers or other indications of the trend of popular 

 thought. Yet Horace Greeley was a man in whom 

 New York took great interest while he lived, and 

 Ericsson's services to our country were not merely_ solid 

 and serious, but picturesque enough in their manifesta- 

 tions to appeal to the imagination and the patriotism of our 

 native and adopted citizens. Had the latter, at all events, 

 been as artistically and forcibly presented to the public gaze 

 as is the case with Nathan Hale, then we could rightly 

 have looked for some patent manifestation of public in- 

 terest in his personality and deeds. But his statue is a poor 

 work of art, and therefore it does not attract the popular 

 eye or touch the popular heart. It is as inefficient in his- 

 torically educating the people and in really glorifying, 

 spreading and preserving Ericsson's memory, as it is in 

 delighting the eye and increasing appreciation for art in 

 general. From every point of view the money paid for it 

 has been wasted. Indeed, it has been worse than wasted, 

 for if a statue or any other memorial does not advance the 

 cause of true art, it must retard it. 



The lesson which, above all, we wish to enforce is that 

 no public monument has an excuse for existence unless it 

 is primarily and essentially a work of art. The subject 

 may be worthy, the purpose of its erection may be com- 

 mendable, but it will miserably fail to come up to the meas- 

 ure of its highest usefulness unless it makes a command- 

 ing appeal to the imagination of the beholder, and through 

 this to his nobler passions. A thousand monuments have 

 been erected all over the country to celebrate the heroism 

 of our soldiers during the civil war. How many of them 

 set forth with any living force the elevated patriotism 

 which they aim to illustrate and typify ? They fail because 

 they are not instinct with the poetry which idealizes every 

 genuine work of art. They move no one ; they inspire no 

 one. Instead of adequately commemorating the patriotic 

 ardor of a past generation, they simply testify that the gen- 

 eration which erected them lacked all proper appreciation 

 of art and its highest functions. 



Wild Roses about Chicago. 



THE species of Rose in the Lake region are not in all 

 respects clearly defined. They intermingle to some ex- 

 tent, and cases occur which may be designated by one 

 name about as well as by another. This may show that 

 too many species have been made, or that some should 

 have varietal rank, yet the troublesome forms may be con- 

 fined to particular or limited localities, or, if existing else- 

 where, may be between a different set of species. The 

 various kinds should be closely studied in the field and 

 garden, where their behavior can be watched. This will 

 be helpful in establishing characteristics and removing dis- 

 crepancies which may have come from too implicit re- 

 liance on herbarium specimens. In the following notes 

 the nomenclature followed is that of the sixth edition of 

 Gray's Manual, 



The Roses differ from one another in their time of flow- 



ering and the duration of their floral season. All species 

 occurring in the northern parts of Illinois and Indiana will 

 be found in bloom in June, with the possible exception of 

 the Prairie or Climbing Rose, whose season is the month 

 of July, as far as I have seen it. The first to appear are 

 Rosa blanda and R. Engelmanni. In an early season a 

 few flowers of these may be seen in May, but they are not 

 abundant till June, and are mostly gone before the middle 

 of July, only occasional flowers being found afterward. 

 This year they started earlier than usual, and were so 

 hastened by the warm weather that few were found as late 

 as the 1st of July. R. humilis comes into flower two or 

 three weeks later, and is generally abundant the first half 

 of July. Each of the three species just named has a sea- 

 son lasting about six weeks. R. setigera, the Climbing 

 Rose, barely continues four weeks. R. Carolina, the 

 Swamp Rose, flowers through the summer, from the last of 

 June till September, but is most common in July. Another 

 form of Rose with somewhat doubtful affinities which I 

 find here has about the same period as the Swamp Rose. 

 It seems nearest to R. Arkansana, Porter. 



The most common species is Rosa blanda found through- 

 out this region in dry or dryish ground, both in fields and 

 open woods. It is rarely more than three feet high, mostly 

 but one or two feet. Taller bushes are mainly due to 

 richer or damper soil, shade or crowding by other shrubs. 

 The leaflets are from oval to oblong, and of a light green 

 color. They are paler beneath, and generally more or 

 less pubescent. The veins are impressed, and appear rather 

 prominent beneath. The flowers are an inch and a half to 

 two inches in diameter. They are rather pale, but are 

 brighter when they first expand ; sometimes they fade al- 

 most to white. As a rule the stems are smooth, but there 

 are frequent exceptions, for the branches only may be 

 smooth and the main stems prickly, or both stem and 

 branches may be furnished with acicular prickles. The 

 fresh shoots which spring up from the root are very apt to 

 be prickly at first, but the prickles disappear afterward, 

 lasting till the following year, or even longer. The recep- 

 tate is smooth and globular, the calyx-leaves hispid or glan- 

 dular, commonly undivided, and persistent on the pale red 

 fruit. 



Nearly allied to this is Rosa Engelmanni. The flowers 

 are somewhat larger, from two to two and a half inches 

 across. They are bright rose-colored when they open, but 

 change to a pale tint, though not as quickly or to the same 

 extent as those of R. blanda. It is a free bloomer, and fre- 

 quently assumes a more simple habit than any other Rose 

 with which it is associated here. Plants of this habit bear the 

 flowers on short branches along the sides of the main 

 stem, forming racemose clusters a foot or two long. These 

 wand-like stems, with ten to twenty flowers all open at 

 once, are very showy. It is principally a species of damp 

 or shaded ground, growing in thickets not too dense and 

 by the borders of swamps, but sometimes appears in drier 

 as well as in more open situations, where it is lower and 

 more bushy, more nearly resembling R. blanda. Its more 

 common habitat here is in those parts of the open woods 

 which are wet, or even covered with water in the wet sea- 

 sons of the year, but where the water does not remain long 

 enough to prevent a growth of shrubs or low trees, or where 

 the ground is not as swampy and hummocky as that in 

 which R. Carolina usually occurs. It is taller than R. blanda, 

 the usual height from three to five feet, the range from 

 two to eight feet. The main stem is almost always thickly 

 covered with prickles. They are rather short and weak, 

 and are sometimes so dense that the stems have a hirsute 

 appearance, like those of some of the wild Gooseberries. 

 The branches are generally smooth. When in full foliage 

 the whole plant has a very vigorous look, with an ensemble 

 which is far more easily discerned by the eye than de- 

 scribed in words, and which soon leads in practice to its 

 detection. The leaflets are large, being broadly oval to 

 slightly obovate, in structure and color much like those of 

 R. blanda, but mostly broader in proportion to their length. 



