January 14, 1891.] 



Garden and Forest. 



23 



Correspondence. 



Tuberous Begonias. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir.— Not every one who is familiar with the species and has 

 watched the marvelous development of the hybrid Begonias 

 will agree with all the views expressed in a recent article, en- 

 titled " Form in Flowers," in Garden and Forest. " Spoiling 

 the flowers " is a familiar cry to the reader of horticultural 

 literature, and we have had the same warning and very much 

 the same arguments over all florists' flowers which those who 

 are deploring the fate of the Begonias are now advancing. 

 "Nature gives us the Ramanas and the Cherokee Rose, the 

 florist produces Paul Neyron." So runs the complaint, and it 

 seems a severe arraignment till the florist finds time to remark 

 that besides Paul Neyron, his art has also produced La France, 

 The Bride, Catherine Mermet and others which seem to have 

 been overlooked in the course of the argument. 



While there are certain ill defined canons of taste recognized 

 among people of intelligence, yet practically we all decline to 

 believe that anything which gives us pleasure has no beauty. 

 I have no desire to enter into an unprofitable discussion on 

 the beauty of form or the lack of it in the new Begonias, but 

 simply wish to call attention to the conception of "Nature's 

 Begonia," on which the argument is based. The type as 

 Nature designed it, we are told, is a low dwarf plant with weak 

 peduncles and small, drooping flowers of somewhat irregular 

 outline. But taking the entire family of tuberous Begonias, of 

 which there are about a score of species in cultivation, the 

 combination specified is on the whole a rather rare one. The 

 rule, if there is one, among the very diverse habits of these 

 plants, is that the dwarf ones have stiff flower-stalks and the 

 tall kinds weak ones, while there seem to be at least as many 

 flowers of regular as of irregular shape. But most of our 

 hybrids have been made from B. Boliviensis, B. Pearcei, B. 

 Veitchii, B. Davisii, and in a smaller degree from B. rosaflora 

 and B. Clarkii. B. Boliviensis, a tall plant, is responsible for 

 the weak peduncles appearing so frequently in the hybrid Be- 

 gonias, especially in the double varieties, the first of which 

 were derived from that species. From a cultivator's point of 

 view a flower on a low plant which has a peduncle so weak as 

 to allow it to lie on the ground like a boy's sucker is not very 

 desirable, and after supplying one's wants for hanging baskets, 

 etc., such varieties are usually discarded by careful growers. 

 There does not seem to be any inherent objection to trying 

 to secure seedlings of the Davisii type with dwarf habit and 

 fine flowers on stout, erect stems. We could hardly have too 

 great an abundance of such pure colors, and if the flowers are 

 sometimes rather large, this fault would regulate itself, for under 

 ordinary treatment they are generally but little larger than 

 those of some of the types. No doubt many inferior forms have 

 been sent out, for every plant produces a salable tuber, and 

 the margin of the florist is so small that he cannot be expected 

 to throw away a plant so readily marketable. But after all, 

 instead of assailing the hybridizer for lack of taste, why not 

 encourage him in the production of what, is new? Suppose 

 some of the seedlings are not beautiful according to some 

 ultra-Japanese standard, many of them will be sufficiently 

 wayward and whimsical to suit the hyperaesthetical, and many 

 more will delight those whose tastes are less highly educated, 

 who can endure a regular flower and even admire a double 

 Camellia. 



Now is a good time to get some seed of one of these 

 naughty hybridizers, for if sown at once they will commence 

 to come into bloom in early June. The culture from seed is 

 of the simplest. Use light soil, sow thinly on the surface and 

 cover pan with glass. They will germinate in a fortnight, and 

 even in the seed-leaf stage will stand considerable neglect. 

 They should be dibbled out when small and kept growing at 

 not too high a temperature. One can scarcely have too great 

 a stock of these plants either for the garden or greenhouse. 



Flatbush, L. I. Qllis. 



[If our correspondent will take the trouble to read again 

 the article on which he comments, he will find not a word 

 in disparagement of hybridizing. What the article main- 

 tained was : That increased size alone is not necessarily 

 improvement ; that a certain irregularity of outline which 

 is pleasing in small flowers may be disagreeable when 

 exaggerated in larger ones ; that stiff perpendicular stems 

 with a flower at the top, face upward, is no improvement 

 on the graceful drooping habit of most Begonias, and that 

 in many plants (not all) the single natural flowers are 



more beautiful than those which have been doubled by 

 the gardener's art. "Quis" admits that "many inferior 

 forms have been sent out/' and we agree with him that the 

 grower can hardly be expected to throw away marketable 

 tubers. And yet it is well to insist now and then that 

 flowers are not always beautiful merely because they are 

 new or big or perfectly double. — Ed.] 



The Owl and the Sparrow. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — Your pleasant correspondent, Charles Naudin, has 

 some interesting notes on the Stryx passerina, a bird of whose 

 existence I may as well confess my ignorance. The sugges- 

 tion of any process which promises to aid in the extirpation of 

 that admitted pest, the English sparrow, is alluring, but in 

 avoiding Charybdis we often fall upon Scylla, and it occurs to 

 me that our pigmy friend, who is, to quote Mr. Naudin's de- 

 scription, "a ferocious and well-armed bird," who "not only 

 exterminates the sparrows' nests, but drives them away en- 

 tirely by its presence alone from any locality," is a party to be 

 respected certainly, but distrusted as to his ability or willing- 

 ness to draw the line at English sparrows. I think your cor- 

 respondent, who praises him possibly not too highly, would 

 hardly care to "seal to such a bond " as would guarantee his 

 discriminative powers in this respect. Like the writer, there 

 are doubtless a few of your readers whose suburban expe- 

 rience, having a retrospect of something over half a century, 

 includes, among other pleasant memories, recollections of 

 countless mornings in years long past, which in one respect 

 at least answered to Milton's beautiful description as "Sweet, 

 with charm of earliest birds." That these are now mainly 

 matters of reminiscence is largely due to the thoughtless and 

 unfortunate introduction of the English sparrow. The dimin- 

 ished ranks of the native inhabitants of our orchards and 

 hedge-rows are ill-conditioned to face a new marauder of the 

 type Mr. Naudin describes, and it would seem to be the part 

 of prudence to keep the Atlantic between us and the fierce 

 little Cheveche until we are better informed as to his prefer- 

 ences and limitations. While we admire his valor, we may 

 fairly question his discretion, and before making further reck- 

 less ventures we ought to be well assured, as between the 

 English sparrow and the Chevgche, that this is not a case 

 where "bad begins and worse remains behind." 



West Roxbury, Mass. W. H. C. 



[We have received letters containing the same warning 

 from several correspondents, and should be glad to hear 

 from others who have some knowledge of the habits of 

 the Pigmy Owl. — Ed.] 



Recent Publications. 



Outings at Odd Times. By Charles C. Abbott. New York : 

 D. Appleton & Co. 



Dr. Abbott has found another felicitous title for this latest 

 addition to his series of out-of-door books. He saunters 

 through upland and meadow, along woodside and brookside, 

 to discover in every well-tramped highway and byway a fresh- 

 ness that never fails in the familiar forms of lowly life. The 

 oftener he strolls among the familiar scenes where he has so 

 often invited his readers to accompany him, the more thickly 

 throng the surprises among the shrubs and weeds, the reptile's 

 and insects, the birds and " small deer," for one who has eyes 

 to detect them. And what Dr. Abbott sees he can weave into 

 a narrative so entertaining that reading it is the next best 

 thing to actually watching and witnessing in detail the modest 

 events in the history which Nature keeps making day by day 

 all the yearlong. 



The book is so much in the vein of its predecessors that 

 what has been so often said of their scope and quality will 

 answer as a characterization of this one, and yet it differs 

 somewhat in its flavor from the rest, and particularly from the 

 earlier volumes of the series. It is less distinctly descriptive of 

 our humble relatives and their ways and not so photographic 

 in its delineation of what is seen. It is more contemplative. 

 It treats the reader to musings on the more general laws of 

 Nature. It is more subjective, too, and depicts the mood of 

 the observer as often as the object mirrored in his mind. If, 

 therefore, the reader finds fewer facts recorded he may detect 

 more poetry ; and since the book is not advertised as having 

 merely or mainly a scientific value, he will not complain, and 

 he may find the change not disagreeable. 



