August 29, 1894.] 



Garden and Forest. 



34i 



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, AUGUST 29, 1894. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Article :— Nature and Art 341 



Botanical Notes from Texas.— XXIII E. N. Plank. 342 



Foreign Correspondence: — London Letter IV. Watson. 343 



Entomological: — The San Jose" Scale. (With figure.). Professor John B. Smith. 344 

 New or Little-known Plants :— Spiraea longigemma. (With figure.) .. C. S. S. 344 



Plant Notes 345 



Cultukal Department: — Basket Ferns ..William Scott. 346 



Hardy Perennials B. 346 



Flowering Annuals M. Arnot. 347 



In the Shrubbery J. Stanton. 347 



Henderson's Bush Lima Bean Beefield. 347 



Meetings of Societies : — American Forestry Association 347 



The Society of American Florists 349 



Notes 350 



Illustrations : — San Jose Scale : a. Pear, moderately infested — natural size. 



b. Female scale — enlarged. Fig. 55 344 



Spiral longigemma, Fig. 56 345 



Nature and Art. 



WRITING recently in the Revue Horticole, Monsieur 

 Edouard Andre, the most distinguished living rep- 

 resentative of the art of gardening in Europe, had occa- 

 sion to refer to the times, before the middle of our century, 

 when the school represented by Thouin, Le Breton and 

 the Buehlers was dominant in France. " In those times," 

 he said, "much attention was rightly paid to the harmony 

 of the preparatory plan, but it was not the sole preoccupa- 

 tion of designers of gardens, while at present they some- 

 times seem more solicitous about the effect of their compo- 

 sition as it will show upon paper than as it will show upon 

 the ground. Formerly the search for beautiful results was 

 made, often through patiently extended experiments, upon 

 the spot itself, and not in the office ; and this method was 

 the right one. The excessive care now devoted to the theo- 

 retical drawing, which so often leads to disillusions in the 

 actual work, must surely disappear in the near future. It 

 will be understood that the tracing of paths, which to-day 

 is thought to constitute in itself the art of garden-design, is 

 only a portion of this art, and not the most important por- 

 tion. It will be felt that, above all, varied scenes must be 

 created within an harmonious whole, and that the means 

 of approach to these scenes should be simply accessory." 



These words should be laid to heart by American land- 

 scape-gardeners especially, for the temptations toward un- 

 due dependence upon office study are even greater in this 

 country than elsewhere. We have as yet very few land- 

 scape-artists of recognized learning, taste and skill, and 

 the services of these are apt to be required, not merely in 

 the vicinity of their homes, but in the most distant parts of 

 the country. And, while the vast size of this country makes 

 frequent visits to the scene of work, or a prolonged resi- 

 dence there peculiarly difficult, on the other hand it makes 

 them peculiarly needful ; for within the United States local- 

 ities differ so radically in conformation, soil, climate and 

 vegetation, and consequently in assthetic as well as prac- 

 tical character, that the experience gained in one region 

 may be all but wholly useless in another. 



It is much easier, much more comfortable, much more 

 speedy, to elaborate a scheme of treatment in the office 

 from a topographical survey, than carefully and patiently 

 to study every feature and suggestion which Nature pre- 

 sents, and then as carefully and patiently to adapt one's 

 , own features and details to hers. An added temptation to 

 work in this way lies in the fact that the artist may some- 

 times persuade himself that it gives him greater freedom, 

 permits him to be more truly creative, more original. And 

 thus allowing himself partially to neglect the requirements 

 of his special problem, he gradually comes to think of his 

 drawings as independent works of art, as things to be made 

 attractive for their own sakes. We often note the same 

 tendency among architects. They, too, are often led astray 

 by the ease with which a drawing may be made attractive 

 if the stern requirements of actual construction are partially 

 forgotten. And the result is the same in both cases. As 

 Monsieur Andr6 says, it is almost sure to be disillusion. 

 A building which, in the perspective drawing, has its color 

 falsified, its effects of light and shade over-accented, its 

 details indicated in a manner foreign to the aspect they will 

 wear when executed, and its surroundings supplied from 

 the draughtsman's imagination, cannot but disappoint its 

 owner when it is transferred from paper to brick and stone. 

 And a pleasure-ground, the lines of which are harmonious 

 and beautiful on paper, may be just as disappointing if these 

 lines have not been drawn with the most careful reference 

 to every natural detail upon the special site in question. 



There is no such thing — there can be no such thing — as 

 a theoretically good design for an informal pleasure- 

 ground ; for no two sites are exactly alike, and excellence 

 in art always consists in appropriateness — in respect for 

 the conditions of the special problem presented to the artist. 

 But a designer cannot help working theoretically if he trans- 

 fers to his office much of that labor of contemplation, ex- 

 amination, imagination, and decision upon features large 

 and small, which is involved in the establishment of his 

 plan upon paper. Of course, this plan must eventually be 

 drawn in the office ; but it should be fixed in the artist's 

 head while his eyes are studying Nature's preparatory, 

 controlling scheme ; and even after its main features are 

 executed upon the soil, perpetual fresh consideration and 

 superintendence is required if details of planting are to be 

 satisfactorily carried out. No man's imagination is vigor- 

 ous and true enough to foresee, in any large scheme, pre- 

 cisely what the effect of all its parts will be, or how they 

 may necessitate modifications in the proposed arrange- 

 ment of minor features and details. Perpetual study upon 

 the spot is needful until the final touches have been given 

 to his work. A proof of the truth of these words may be 

 found in many of our public pleasure-grounds where the 

 beauty of the main conception is disguised, if not de- 

 formed, by lack of taste in planting, and especially in the 

 minor details of planting 1 . 



It is natural that, as Monsieur Andre notes, the habit of 

 undue dependence upon office study should have led to 

 the habit of considering paths and drives as the chief fea- 

 tures of a problem ; for these are the features which 

 "make the most show" in a drawing, and the lines of 

 which if harmoniously disposed on paper, do most to 

 suggest an attractive, artistic scheme. It is, however, true 

 that they are not the most important things in the com- 

 pleted work. They are seen as a whole on paper, but are 

 usually seen only bit by bit when one traverses them, and 

 thus the careful balancing and opposition of their lines is 

 often labor wasted even when it is not actually labor 

 wrongfully bestowed. The main thing in the creation of 

 a pleasure-ground is, as Monsieur Andre says, the creation 

 of beautiful scenes. Paths and drives are merely the 

 means of approach to these — devices to make their beauty 

 accessible, and to display it well from all desirable points 

 of view. 



Nowhere could a better instance of the artistic disposi- 

 tion, the right relative importance, of paths and drives be 

 found than in our Central Park. Here we think little about 



