266 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 172. 



money return which it is possible for them to yield. The 

 forest, then, is doomed to fall ; and when that crisis comes to 

 this particular forest, the railroad which pierces it through 

 will make its destruction easy, certain and complete. There 

 is no permanent safety for the Adirondack^ until it is 

 owned in fee-simple by the state, and even then it will 

 never be free from attack until the people of the state have 

 been educated to realize its paramount public value. 



Of course we appreciate the truth that there should 

 be a steady income from a permanent forest ; that such 

 a utilization of its products will not depreciate the value of 

 the forest as a reservation ; that, indeed, the forest will be 

 safer for yielding- an income, and that to yield an income 

 there must be facilities for removing timber. But it is 

 quite possible to accomplish this by a system of narrow- 

 gauge gravity roads through the tract, together with timber 

 slides and such other appliances as lumbermen of the pres- 

 ent day are familiar with. Even if one or more first-class 

 railways through the woods would make such transporta- 

 tion easier and cheaper, their simple presence would de- 

 stroy the essential value of the Adirondacks as a resort for 

 rest and recreation. The fundamental charm of this region 

 is its remoteness from the great lines of travel and disturb- 

 ing human activities. If the woods were crossed and re- 

 crossed with railroads, settlements would spring up at 

 their intersection, the deer would be frightened from their 

 ranges, the fish in the streams and lakes would be caught 

 for city markets, and the wildness would be chased 

 away with the game. The place would still have attrac- 

 tions, but it would no longer be a wilderness. It would 

 be a commonplace collection of mountains and woods and 

 lakes, with the ordinary conditions of work-day life for- 

 ever in sight. The strangeness and romance would all 

 vanish, and with them the temptation to tent-life in the 

 presence of untamed nature. It will be hard enough, even 

 under the most favorable auspices, to save the woods with 

 all their suggestions of remoteness and separation from the 

 ordinary conditions of life, but it will be absolutely im- 

 possible to do so if railroads are allowed to penetrate them. 



less dense, allowing the eye to pass between the trunks of the 

 trees. Just this mass of vegetation, solid below and more 

 broken and graceful above, was needed to give its full effect to 

 the architectural group. 



A Fountain at Potsdam. 



/ ~PHE picture on page 271 shows part of the fagade of one of 

 -*- the minor palaces at Potsdam, near Berlin, and the foun- 

 tain which its windows overlook. The composition is a charm- 

 ing one in the rather severe classic style which was in favor 

 toward the end of the last century. Although at first sight it 

 may seem odd that the basin of the fountain has a balustrade 

 on one side only, a good reason for this can easily be divined. 

 A balustrade was needed on the side next the house to con- 

 nect the fountain with the steps, and, by means of these, with 

 the main architectural motive, and to give it dignity when 

 seen from the house. But had it been continued on the fur- 

 ther side it would have formed a sharp line against the vege- 

 tation beyond, whereas now the eye must pass to this without 

 hindrance, and the little sheet of water must seem to blend 

 naturally with its surroundings. Animals spurting water from 

 their mouths are not often agreeable objects, and we may 

 possibly wish that these lions might be replaced by figures of 

 another sort. Still, they have a stately air, befitting the char- 

 acter of the architectural scheme as a whole, and their de- 

 scending lines of water contrast well with the great ascending 

 shaft in the centre. The alternating figures and urns on the 

 balustrades are entirely happy features, and, of course, the 

 little pavilions are admirably designed to repeat and support 

 the "motive" of the palace front. 



But we wish particularly to call attention to the wayin which 

 the whole composition gains by the presence of the thick 

 masses of foliage. As we look from the point where the pho- 

 tograph was taken they form a delightful background for the 

 fountain, and at the same time frame the palace, concealing its 

 extent, and thus giving the imagination a chance to act. And 

 in the view of the fountain from the palace they must be 

 equally effective, revealing more or less of it as the spectator 

 changes his standpoint, be it ever so slightly. If we fancy 

 these masses of foliage pushed back so as to reveal the whole 

 facade and to give a free sight of the whole fountain from its 

 windows, how greatly the scene loses in both dignity and 

 poetry ! Nor would it be so beautiful were the shrubberies 



S 



California Plants for California Gardens. 



OME time or other the thought that the proper plants to 

 grow in any given place are those native to it, may 

 perhaps spread until it finally reaches popular acceptances. 

 Heretofore it has been the custom in most places to fill the 

 garden with exotics — in fact, anything not indigenous to the 

 locality has always been considered the correct thing 'to 

 give space to and to grow, if possible. The more care and 

 labor required to make such plants succeed, the nearer right 

 has been thought the choice made. But this is a mistake. 

 The proper plants for California gardens are California plants. 

 Have we any lack of attractive things ? Look at the foot-hills ! 

 Behold the sandy fields by the seaside and the sheets of gold, 

 of pale yellow and blues and most lovely harmonious grays 

 that cover them over. Is anything more brilliant ever seen in 

 gayest garden or park-border elsewhere ? 



What we need to do is simply to bring together the splendid 

 collection nature offers us, and that is now so widely scattered 

 over the state. These things she has planted where they are 

 likeliest to succeed, in stony and sandy soils upon which the 

 grasses and civilized weeds that love rank feed are not 

 disposed to intrude and choke them out. We cannot bring 

 these all into one garden, but we may into any one a town or 

 county. 



Each garden could show a different group. The annuals I 

 would place in the wide, depressed gutters at street-sides, but 

 the bulbous plants and more striking perennials in the borders 

 against and around the house. The shade-lovers, that is to 

 say, the Violets, Trilliums, the Actaea, the Thalictrum, the 

 Anemone, the Trientalis, and all such modest things in size 

 and dress, not to forget the Ferns, would find room out of the 

 sun's way on the house's north side. 



If need be, the town trustees could furnish the seed for the 

 gutter plantation, and the town marshal could vary his usual 

 round of duties by filling a gardener's place for a while. 



The true California flower season lasts from March to mid- • 

 June, inclusive, though afterward here and there a bright spot 

 lingers where some perennial, possessed of deep-feeding 

 roots and a longer or later flowering period, has established 

 itself. These are candidates for the garden I have in mind as 

 its fixed features. 



The practice of irrigating garden-ground in summer should 

 be abandoned, because unhealthy, as all confess it to be. 

 Our new scheme for the garden makes this shelving of the 

 hose not only a possibility but a desirability, as the plants we 

 are about to adopt know only a continuous dry summer, and, 

 furthermore, have learned by long practice where to find all 

 the water they need. 



It is to be hoped Senator Stanford will bring together, within 

 the ample grounds of the University at Palo Alto, the entire 

 flora of California, so that we may all see just what may be 

 done in the way of furnishing well a series of gardens with 

 native plants only. 



[These notes are taken from an article in the Pacific 

 Rural Press, and we reproduce them because they present 

 a truth of more than local application. Of course we would 

 not confine the selection of garden-plants in a given region 

 entirely to those that are native there, but the first qualifi- 

 cation of a beautiful plant is health and vigor, and when na- 

 tive plants are selected, we are sure, to begin with, that they 

 are adapted to the climate. No one will exclude exotic 

 plants that will thrive, and our own gardens in the spring 

 would sadly miss the Snowdrops, Tulips and Daffodils, 

 the Peonies, Irises and Poppies, which have come to 

 us from distant, countries. Nevertheless, it is true that 

 American plants are too rarely seen in American gardens. 

 This is not only true of our shrubs and small trees, which 

 are among the most beautiful to be found in the world, but 

 it is true of herbaceous plants, which can be procured in 

 almost endless variety. It may be added, for the benefit of 

 those who are anxious to decorate their gardens with plants 

 that are rare, that our own Trilliums, Uvularias, Sanguina- 

 rias, Erythroniums and many others would be much more 

 strange to the eyes of the ordinary visitor than the exotic 

 garden-plants, which everybody cultivates. — Ed.] 



