July 29, 1S91.] 



Garden and Forest. 



359 



came from a distant state after it, and found it gone, root and 

 branch, not even a stump remaining to show where it had 

 once stood. How the amateurs of that town would have ri- 

 valed each other in their eagerness to secure a root or sprout 

 of it had any 'one told them what a rare exotic it was. But, 

 with all its exquisite beauty, it perished because people thought 

 it a native plant, and would not take the trouble to transplant 

 it where it could have liberty to grow unmolested. 



The study of botany in our common schools and the organ- 

 izing of wild-flower clubs would tend to popularize our home- 

 plants and to demonstrate that there is as much genuine 

 beauty in the daintily-poised Blue-bell of the meadowas in the 

 more pretentious cultivated flower, and that a fine flower is 

 beautiful wherever found, be it in greenhouse, door-yard or 

 woodland. It would be easy to interest our children in col- 

 lecting native plants and in having them care for them in the 

 home grounds, and there is as much pleasure and recreation 

 in a day of plant-gathering as in hunting or fishing. 



I have noticed that a few persons lead the floral taste of each 

 town, and that every successful flower-garden has many imi- 

 tators, and if persons who appreciate wild flowers would give 

 them a place in the garden for their own pleasure, they would 

 soon find the little floral world around them growing the same 

 kind of plants. If, in the neighborhood summer-outings plant- 

 collecting trips were included, beds of native flowers would 

 soon be as much a feature of the garden as the ribbon, foliage 

 or sub-tropical beds now are. 



Among the encouraging signs to be noted is the prominent 

 position which Garden and Forest and other good journals 

 give to articles on native plants and flowers, and the increasing 

 number of advertisements, which show that the propagation 

 and sale of native plants is receiving more attention. 

 Pineville, Mo. Lor a S. La Maiice. 



A Redeemed Swamp. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — In an editorial article in Garden and Forest, for July 

 Sth, on the Value of Rural Beauty, the encouraging fact was 

 noted that there is an increasing tendency |to purchase so- 

 called waste places and to hold them for the enjoyment of the 

 people. This is, without doubt, true, and few of us whose 

 travels are confined to main thoroughfares realize how much 

 is being done in this direction. The workers are immersed 

 in their creditable work and seek no notoriety, and their efforts 

 seldom find a recorder. A very interesting public improve- 

 ment, carried on by private enterprise, I found a few days 

 since in the near-by town of Clifton, New Jersey. Along the 

 Dundee Drive, at the foot of Dundee Lake, a reservoir on the 

 Passaic River, there was a swamp stretching for a thousand 

 feet along the road. The swamp occupied a depression be- 

 tween the drive on one side and a sloping hill on the other, 

 and like the usual waste place of this character, was an eye- 

 sore, filled with weeds, wild grasses and decaying vegetation, 

 and covered in summer with a pall of dust. Mr. S. C. Nash, 

 who occupies a residence opposite, acquired the property, 

 and with energy inspired by a love of nature in general and 

 aquatics in particular, has widened the swamp into a small 

 lake, waged war on the unsightly vegetation, started a garden 

 of native plants on the border, established the hardy Water 

 Lilies, and has already effected a transformation which prom- 

 ises the town a never-failing attraction. 



Mr. Nash has not redeemed this place without a constant 

 struggle with uncompromising and sleepless enemies, and he 

 reads Mrs. Robbins' account of renewing an old place with a 

 sympathy which comes from similar trials and experiences. 



The Nymphaeas, Pontederias, Irises, Wild Rice, Sagittarias, 

 and the like, have already taken hold with vigor, but to one 

 only accustomed to growing aquatics in an artificial pond it 

 was interesting to note the numerous indigenous wildings ex- 

 actly adapted to their environments, which grew apparently 

 for the delight of rebellion against constant efforts to exter- 

 minate them. But Mr. Nash will learn, as many of the rest 

 of us have already learned, that these trials are the true 

 sources of delight in the garden. 



Elizabeth, N.J. G. 



Are Fungicides Abused? 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — Under the head of "The Abuse of Insecticides," 

 Dr. Hoskins, on page 247, protests against using mineral poi- 

 sons as fungicides, and declares that he cannot consent to the 

 use of arsenical spravs in his orchard either as an insecticide 

 or fungicide. While not wishing to discuss the question of 



the danger of arsenical compounds, it seems only just to state 

 that the accepted formulae for fungicides do not call for any 

 compound of arsenic. This does not mean thatfungicidesarc 

 harmless to man if taken into his system in considerable quan- 

 tities. Many substances are used to prevent the growth of 

 mildews, molds and blights, but usually they contain some 

 compound of copper as the effective ingredient, which is not 

 wholesome, although lacking much of the poisonous nature of 

 the arsenical insecticides. That these copper compounds can 

 be used as a spray in such large quantities as to do injury to 

 the person afterward using the treated fruit or vegetable for 

 food is possible, but the experience of many, extending over 

 several years, indicates that the chances of harm are too few 

 to be worth considering. In other words, the standard fun- 

 gicides, when properly applied, arc practically harmless. Their 

 effectiveness is now generally admitted. Thousands of Grape- 

 growers, for example, now spray their vines with as much 

 faith in the process as they have in the value of manures for 

 crops. Again, it has been shown that the copper mixture will 

 save the foliage of Pear-trees from the leaf-blight, and bring a 

 prize crop of fruit when only leafless and fruitless branches 

 would remain if the fungicide was withheld. Practice has 

 demonstrated that fungicides pay. It would be unfortunate if 

 fruit-growers or gardeners should be deterred from using 

 them by an imaginary danger. 



N.J. Experiment Station. ByrOll D. Hals ted. 



Exhibitions. 



The free Saturday exhibitions of the Massachusetts Horti- 

 cultural Society can generally be depended upon to bring 

 together some interesting plants and flowers, and arc often 

 more instructive than the more elaborate exhibitions given by 

 this society at stated periods during the year. That which was 

 held on the 19th of July may be called a Hollyhock exhibition, 

 as the principal prizes awarded were given to this popular 

 flower. Mr. Joseph S. Fay, of Woods Holl, who in the last 

 year or two has come into the very front rank of exhibitors 

 before the Massachusetts Society, easily took the first prize, 

 both for cut flowers and for a collection of spikes, which were 

 nearly six feet high, and proportionately strong and vigorous. 

 Flowers almost as fine were exhibited by Mr. Nathaniel P. 

 Kidder, of Milton, who took the second prize. Very interest- 

 ing and beautiful was a remarkable collection of Sweet Peas 

 sent by the Reverend W. T. Hutchins, of Ellington, Connecti- 

 cut, comprising forty-four varieties, in many colors, some ex- 

 ceptionally dark. It contained many of Mr. Hutchins' own 

 seedlings, and, altogether, was one of the most attractive ex- 

 hibits which has been seen in Boston for a long time. A col- 

 lection of the Shirley Poppies, from F. S. Davis, attracted 

 considerable attention. These are charming flowers of the 

 most delicate and delightful shades of color, but it cannot be 

 denied that they possess the disagreeable odor of their race, 

 and that, like all Poppies, they last a very short time. Mr. 

 Benjamin B. Smith, of Cambridge, showed a basket of the 

 large fruit of a dwarf Shad-bush {Amclanchicr Canadensis, 

 var. oblongifolia), to the cultivation of which he has for several 

 years devoted careful attention. This, on -the whole, is the 

 most promising of all our wild fruits, with the exception, of 

 course, of that of some species of Vaccinium and Gaylussacia, 

 and only requires time to develop it into a first-class table 

 berry, although it must not be called a berry, being really a 

 little apple, or something very much like it. Very fine Ver- 

 sailles Currants were shown by William Doran & Sons and by 

 B. G. Smith. The first prize for White Currants was awarded 

 for White Grace, and the second for Dana's Transparent. An 

 unusual and most remarkable collection of peas appeared on 

 the table devoted to vegetables, the first prize being awarded 

 for Stratagem, the second for Telephone, and the third for the 

 Duke of Albany. This last, a new variety, was sent from the 

 gardens of Mr/D. B. Fearing, of Newport. The dish of Strata- 

 gem, in size and in perfection of pod and seeds, eclipsed any- 

 thin"- which has been seen in Boston for a long: time. 



Notes. 



In Mrs. Scidmore's recently published "Jinrikisha Days in 

 Japan " she hints at the fact that landscape-gardening is prac- 

 ticed by amateurs and even by ladies, saying - that the Countess 

 Okuma designed the " paradise of agarden" which surrounded 

 her husband's town residence, now the home of the French 

 legation. 



Paris is probably the only northern city where brides may 

 obtain Orange-blossoms at all seasons of the year. \\ lien they 



