October 17, 1894.] 



Garden and Forest 



411 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office : Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducted by 



Professor C. S. Sa 



ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE TOST-OFRCE AT NEW YORK, N. V. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER i 7 , 1894. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Articles : — The Garden in Autumn 41 e 



The Abuse of Public Parks 412 



Prairie Woodlands Rev. E. J. Hill. 412 



Native Trees and Shrubs about Montreal, Canada.— IV J. G. Jack. 413 



Birds injuring Apples Fred IV. Gird. 414 



New or Little-known Plants : — Two New Species of Ilex. (With figures.) 



T. S. Brandrgee. 414 



IPlant Notes 414 



Cultural Department : — Autumn-flowering Rulbs B. M. Watson, Jr. 416 



Autumn-flowering Perennial Plants. — II Robert Cameron 417 



Forcing Vegetables II T illiam Scott. 41 S 



Quince-trees for Ornament E. P. P. 41 S 



Correspondence : — The Forests of Minnesota //'. S. D. 418 



Cephalanthus occidentalis Prof.D.P.Penliallow. 419 



Recent Publications 410 



Notes 420 



Illustrations: — Ilex trifolia, n. sp.. Fig. 65 415 



Ilex Calif urnica, n. sp.. Fig. 66./ 416 



The Garden in Autumn. 



A CORRESPONDENT mildly remonstrates with us on 

 what he considers our partiality to spring gardens. 

 He adds that even while the woods are beginning to glow 

 with their richest colors we are celebrating the value of 

 spring-flowering bulbous plants, and he asks why we do 

 not say more in commendation of the beauty which gar- 

 dens may be made to show in autumn. 



We are not aware of any failure or neglect in the direc- 

 tion indicated. It is true that we do not always wait until 

 spring to call attention to spring flowers. All that is de- 

 lightful in an early garden is the result of preparation the 

 year before, and we aim to give novices seasonable advice 

 ;as to when and how to plant, so that when spring returns 

 ■every root and leaf will be ready to start and every flovver- 

 5bud waiting to open. After our long winters, the spring 

 opening is always in some respects a new creation, and 

 hardy flowers which greet us then make an impression 

 more vivid and different in character from any which we 

 experience at any other time. This is not because these 

 early flowers are the most beautiful of the year, although 

 nothing lovelier follows them ; nor is it altogether due to 

 a certain sub-conscious sympathy with them for having 

 braved the storms of winter and dared to appear in the 

 wild weather of our fickle spring ; nor is it quite explained 

 by the fact that our gardens have been cheerless for many 

 months, so that these welcome flowers appear like lost friends 

 restored ; nor by the fact that this is the season of hope 

 and that we see in the early flowers a promise of all the 

 fruitful seasons are to bring. But all these together, and 

 other reasons no less powerful, because born of imagina- 

 tion or sentiment, give a captivating freshness of interest 

 to early flowers that are peculiarly their own, and there 

 is little danger that we shall advocate too often or too 

 strongly the practice of making a specialty of the spring 

 garden. 



Now, there is nothing in all this to indicate insensibility 

 to the charms and graces of an autumn garden, especially 

 in this climate, and it may be added that one argument we 

 have uSed for a spring garden applies with equal force 

 to the autumn garden. Many American families leave 

 their homes when the hot weather approaches and journey 



to the mountains or to the sea. In summer their houses 

 are shut up and their gardens may as well be desolate for 

 all the enjoyment their owners get from them. We have, 

 therefore, advocated the use of early-flowering shrubs and 

 plants, and combinations which are especially beautiful 

 from the time when the first Snowdrop opens until the close 

 of the Rose season. Most of these summer wanderers 

 return to their homes in September, and they will be 

 there to enjoy their gardens through the autumn, and, of 

 course, this is a good reason for making special effort to 

 make these gardens attractive at this season. Besides this, 

 it can be truly said that there is no season of the year 

 which is comparable to our American autumn for the 

 enjoyment of the woods and fields, and there is no time 

 when one can wander in the garden with equal comfort or 

 pleasure. Every year we have spoken of the wonderful 

 variety of effects which can be produced by planting trees 

 and shrubs with regard to the colors of their autumn 

 foliage, and every year we have given specific notes as to 

 the times when the different varieties turn and the peculiar 

 tints they assume. We have also given special attention 

 to the shrubs which bear ornamental fruit. The Dog- 

 woods and Viburnums, the Privets and Barberries, the 

 species of Celastrus, Vitis, Rose and many others have 

 been noted with regard to the beauty of their fruits and the 

 time of their ripening. To one who has not studied this orna- 

 mental feature of many shrubs, the scarlet and crimson, the 

 deep purple and blue, the amber and pink and white of 

 the clustered fruits, and the delicate bloom on many of them 

 will be a revelation. The herbaceous plants which flower 

 in autumn also have a distinctive beauty. Stately Sun- 

 flowers, Silphiums, Boltonias and many more make bold 

 effects which are possible at no other time of the year ; 

 and there are lower growths, like Autumn Crocuses and 

 Colchicums, which rival* the dainty beauty of the earliest 

 spring flowers. But there is no need to repeat the details 

 we have often given of the material at command for 

 making a rich display as the year closes. In other 

 columns t>f this issue characteristic articles will be found, 

 and we can think of no ordinary element of garden beauty 

 possible for the season which has been overlooked or 

 neglected. 



If autumn brings to the owner of a garden any 

 abatement from the keen delight he has taken in it, 

 this is hardly due to saliety, although he has been 

 enjoying it without cessation for half a year. Gar- 

 dening is a pursuit of which one rarely wearies. But 

 it is hard to keep up sustained enthusiasm in a small 

 enclosure when all the effects attempted are displayed on 

 so grand a scale without. Our beds of yellow flowers look 

 dull when acres of Golden-rod stretch away beyond them; 

 our clumps of purple and blue are insignificant when com- 

 pared with the stretches of Asters by every roadside ; the 

 foliage on our Spiraeas may be bright, but there is a forest 

 of flame in sight, while the wayside shrubs, and even the 

 herbs of the field, are glowing with colors as rich as any we 

 can show. Of course, it is true that there are attractions just 

 beyond the fence of the spring garden, but they are not quite 

 in line with our own efforts. There is an unspeakable 

 beauty in the fields and woods of spring, but it is not of that 

 obtrusive kind which flares out in the autumnal landscape, 

 and it is not a repetition on a limitless scale of what we are 

 trying to produce in our shrubberies and (lower-borders. 

 This hopeless rivalry with universal nature gives a pathetic 

 interest to autumn gardening, and this interest is not dimin- 

 ished by the apprehension of the killing frost which forever 

 threatens in this latitude after the third week in September. 

 Such apprehension revives our sympathies and stirs us to 

 devise means of protection, and the greater our effort and 

 solicitude the closer we are drawn to what can be rescued 

 for a brief period of prolonged life. No doubt, the comfort 

 and refreshment of spirit which an autumn garden can 

 supply will make ample return for all the labor and 

 thought expended on it ; and it is to be hoped that all our 

 readers who have not already made preparations for next 



