254 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 171. 



Lom'cera flava is one of the rarest of American plants, and 

 although it has been known from the very beginning' of 

 the century, there is apparently no evidence that it grows 

 anywhere except in this one spot on Paris Mountain. Mrs. 

 Smyth's most interesting discovery removes another from 

 the now short list of plants known to our early botanists, 

 but unknown to their successors. Now that Darbya, 

 Shortia ami Lonic era flava have been found again, Gordon/a 

 Altamaha ami Illicium parviflorum are the only prizes left 

 among species known to have existed to reward the bo- 

 tanical collector in the south Atlantic states. It is a curious 

 fact that both of these plants, like Lom'cera flava, have been 

 preserved in gardens for nearly a century, although all 

 recent efforts to find them in their native haunts have 

 failed. 



In another column of this issue a correspondent ex- 

 presses a mild disappointment in the gardens of Bermuda 

 because they fail to display that richness and variety of 

 material which one would expect to find in such favorable 

 soil and climate. No doubt there is some justice in this 

 criticism, but the same is true of the gardens in nearly 

 every other portion of the civilized world. The funda- 

 mental error usually consists in ignoring the peculiar 

 natural conditions of the place and endeavoring to con- 

 struct a garden or to modify a landscape in accordance 

 with some foreign ideal. The perfect English lawn is a 

 delight to every one who sees it under English skies, but 

 over a large portion of the world greensward is unknown 

 and impossible, and in such places it is worse than a waste 

 of energy to strive for any garden effects in which a stretch 

 of clipped grass is the prevailing feature. And even in cer- 

 tain regions where grass might be persuaded to grow with 

 careful nursing such lawns may be misplaced, as, for in- 

 stance, among the rocky ledges, dwarf Cedars and scrub 

 Birches of our wild north-eastern coast. In the same way 

 a sub-tropical garden rarely looks happy in the north, even 

 during the heat of our short summers, and if this tender 

 vegetation could be induced to thrive.it would still appear 

 misplaced among the sturdy trees and shrubs and herbs 

 which look fearlessly forward to the approach of winter. 



The true method everywhere, and this is the first canon 

 of all garden art, is to study the native and peculiar beauty 

 of the place and then endeavor to unfold and enhance it, 

 resisting every temptation to give it an alien air by decorat- 

 ing it with foreign and incongruous finery. This is the fun- 

 damental charm of all the famous gardens of the world. The 

 English lawn itself is beautiful in England because it is the 

 legitimate outgrowth of English natural scenery, while the 

 Park of Muskau and the gardens on the shores of the Medi- 

 terranean emphasize the same teaching. In every suc- 

 cessful instance art comes to the help of nature, working 

 in accordance with the informing spirit of the scene. 

 Wherever, on the contrary, attempt is made to oppose or 

 thwart nature the end will be disaster. It would not be 

 strange if the Bermudians had committed some errors of 

 this sort. If they have endeavored to provide themselves 

 with English gardens in a latitude south of that where the 

 finer grasses thrive, their lawns will give them little satis- 

 faction. It would be a natural mistake on their part to try 

 the strictly tropical plants which clothe some of the West 

 Indies with such luxuriant beauty, for they have intimate 

 commercial relations with these islands, and, of course, 

 are familiar with their flora, but Tree-Ferns and Crotons 

 could hardly endure the chill of the more northern islands. 

 Again, these islanders are in the habit of visiting our northern 

 states in summer, and, after enjoying the singular beauty 

 of our flowering shrubs and trees and hardy plants, they 

 have endeavored to naturalize many of them. Here, too, 

 failure was inevitable. Plants which can endure a long 

 winter are rarely hardy enough to survive an almost end- 

 less summer, and, therefore, most of the Hybrid Perpetual 

 Roses and scores of shrubs and trees from our nurseries 

 have been planted in Bermuda only to perish. 



But, although mistakes may have been made in planting 

 on these islands, we must acknowledge quite as serious 

 and even more prevalent errors at home. Taken as a whole, 

 Bermuda scenery has a singular charm for northern eyes, 

 and the possibilities of gardening there are endless. Most of 

 the delightful plants which thrive just outside the borders 

 of the tropics would here make themselves at home, and, 

 having been developed in similar climatic surround- 

 ings, would blend harmoniously with the native growth. 

 Olives, Laurels, Myrtles, Magnolias, Rhyncospernmums, 

 Laurestinus, Gardenias and Pittosporums, with Cycads, 

 Yuccas, Aloes, Agaves, Euphorbias and other plants which 

 brighten the gardens of southern Europe, ought to thrive 

 here. The Cherokee Rose, if introduced, might soon be 

 as common as it is in our southern states, while Pinus 

 Cubensis and other southern conifers ought to live happily 

 among the native Cedars. 



But, after all, there are only a few chosen spots in all the 

 world where the art of the gardener is so little needed as it 

 is here to supplement the beauty with which nature has 

 already endowed them. Instead, therefore, of regretting 

 that man has done no more to enhance the beauty of 

 these islands, we ought to be grateful that he has done so 

 little to mar it. 



Sir Christopher Wren as a Gardener. 



ONE usually connects the name of Sir Christopher Wren 

 only with the erection of city churches, but he deserves 

 at least a little niche in the memory of those whose chief con- 

 cern is with plants and with the useful or ornamental disposi- 

 tion of the surface of the ground. I cannot discover what 

 share he may have taken in arranging the grounds of the 

 country homes he built or altered, but we can fancy that he 

 may have been active in this direction, for the art of gardening 

 was then still in its strictly formal phase, the immediate sur- 

 roundings of great country houses were architectural in design, 

 and clients were wise enough to know that the same artist who 

 planned the structure itself should be consulted about its 

 accessories. Moreover, there is historical witness to the 

 fact that once at least he shared in the arrangement of a 

 famous garden. About the year 1690 Queen Mary engaged 

 Wren to make alterations in Cardinal Wolsey's former palace 

 of Hampton Court ; and, though I cannot find any detailed 

 account of what his work on the gardens was, it is known that 

 'they were included with his purely architectural problems. 

 "Queen Mary," says Wren's latest biographer, Miss Phillimore, 

 " though she amused herself with planning the gardens and 

 making suggestions, had yet the wisdom to defer to Wren's 

 better taste and knowledge. Her husband, with characteristic 

 obstinacy, insisted on his own ideas, thereby dwarfing the 

 cloisters and marring much of the architecture. It is, how- 

 ever, fair to say that King William always owned that the 

 defects were his, the merits Wren's ; and these merits were 

 very great as any one who knows the fine old palace, with its 

 rich red brick, its arcades and the quaint formal gardens, will 

 readiiy allow. He built, at about the same time, the Pavilion 

 and the Ranger's House in Bushey Park." 



But it is in Wren's writings that we find what will be of 

 most interest to the readers of Garden and Forest. No 

 man ever worked harder at his own profession than he, even 

 during the later years of his long life ; yet he found time to 

 investigate many other intellectual questions and occasionally 

 to write about them. An article, "On the Surface of the 

 Terrestrial Globe," is mentioned by biographers, but is no 

 longer extant. Another, however, " On the Rising of Sap in 

 Trees," has been preserved. In full it exists only, I believe, 

 in a manuscript inserted in a volume of the " Parentalia," a 

 folio book of family memoirs published by Sir Christopher's 

 grandson, and now itself a rarity. But some extracts from it 

 are printed by Miss Phillimore and are valuable as showing 

 how such a subject was approached, just two centuries ago, 

 by a man who, although he was not a naturalist, had one of 

 the acutest and most cultivated intellects of the time. 



"It is wonderful," writes the great architect, "to see the 

 rising of the sap in Trees. All will bleed more or less when 

 they are tapped by boring a hole through the Bark, some very 

 considerably, as the Birch, which will afford as much liquor 

 every day almost as the milke of a cow ; in a Vine when a 

 bough is cut off it will if not stopped bleed to death. Now by 

 what mechanism is water raised to such a height as in Palmitos 

 1o 120 foot higfh ? A skillfull Engineer cannot effect this with- 



