September 9, 1891.] 



Garden and Forest. 



421 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office : Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducted by Professor C. S. Sargent. 



ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POST OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. Y. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1891. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Articles : — Suggestions to Tree-planters 421 



Monuments in Public Places. — III 421 



A Brook in the Yosemite. (With figure.) 422 



How We Renewed an Old Place.— XVIII Mrs. J. H. Robbins. 422 



The Weeds of California. — IV Professor E. W. Hilgard. 424 



Foreign Correspondence : — London Letter W. Goldrivg. 425 



Cultural Department :— Apples in Maine T. H. Hoskins, M.D. 427 



Sweet Peas Rev. W. T. Hut chins. 427 



Begonias J. N. Gerard. 428 



Correspondence: — Nature's Nurseries M. G. V. R. 429 



Periodical Literature: — A Ride Through the Caucasian Mountains. — II. 



Dr. Dicck. 429 



Exhibitions : — The Massachusetts Horticultural Society 431 



Notes 432 



Illustration : — A Stream in the Yosemite bordered with Alders, Fig. 68 426 



Suggestions to Tree- planters. 



INSTRUCTIONS for planting trees may seem untimely 

 at this season, but really this is the time of year 

 when preparation for next year's planting should be made 

 if such preparation has not been largely completed already. 

 Our springs are so short that if any work at all is accom- 

 plished at that season it must be hurried through, and 

 planting cannot be thoroughly done in the trying weather 

 which then prevails unless everything is made ready for it 

 in advance. Of course, all planning and mapping should 

 be completed before actual work in the ground begins, and 

 since an essential part of this work is deep digging or 

 trenching in time to allow the ground to settle during the 

 w-inter, there is little danger that the work will begin too 

 early. There are few labors in which men engage where 

 the difference between the results of thorough work and of 

 careless work is so striking. A little well-directed effort 

 may insure health and vigor to a tree and make it an object 

 of pride and beauty for a century, while the same tree 

 hastily planted will prove feeble and short-lived, and there- 

 fore a disappointment, for no tree is beautiful which is not 

 full of lusty life. 



One point too often neglected is a consideration of the 

 situation in which various trees are to stand. A so-called 

 ornamental tree, which is feeble or sickly, is always a blot 

 upon the landscape, and no tree can be thoroughly healthy 

 for a long time unless it grows in a soil and situation pe- 

 culiarly suited to its needs. A Pine-tree will thrive on a 

 gravelly bank, but people who try to grow Maples or 

 Hickories in such a situation will find their labor wasted. 

 Equally futile will it be to plant Chestnut-trees where there 

 is a substratum of solid rock, or ericaceous plants where 

 there is much lime in the' land. Of course, it is true that 

 some trees, like the Red Maple and the Bald Cypress, 

 which are usually found in wet ground, will grow when 

 transplanted to uplands ; but the best rule for a planter to 

 follow is the one which is set by Nature, and he will be 

 likely to plant with the greatest success who observes most 

 carefully the positions in which the trees he plants are found 

 when growing naturally. It is too often the case that land- 

 scape-gardeners or other planters, having been charmed with 



the beauty of some tree, attempt to use it without consider- 

 ing its special requirements, and this is one reason why 

 so many short-lived and sickly trees are found in elab- 

 orately planted parks and private grounds. 



Fortunately, this law does not restrict the planter to any 

 troublesome degree, nor does it deprive him of the use of 

 materials needed to produce the best effects. As a rule, 

 swamp-trees appear to better advantage when their feet 

 are in the water. Alders never look so well as they do by 

 a brook-side, so that the planter who considers the wants 

 of his trees, with a view to their health and vigor, will find 

 that by following these rules he is gaining also greater 

 naturalness and beauty in his combinations. Of course, 

 these same rules apply to shrubs and herbaceous plants as 

 to trees, for although the Cardinal-flower and Rose Mallow 

 will bloom when transplanted from the marshes into a dry 

 border, yet the most healthy and beautiful plants are 

 those which are placed in the positions where they are 

 found at home. 



There ought to be no need of insisting on the necessity 

 of a thorough enrichment of the soil, for every one knows 

 that, in addition to its proper mechanical preparation, the 

 soil must furnish plant-food of the proper quality. Here, 

 too, a study of trees as they appear under natural condi- 

 tions will teach a useful lesson. Let any one note the in- 

 significant size and meagre foliage of a tree growing in a 

 thin soil, or on a hungry ridge, and compare it with a speci- 

 men of the same species standing in deep, rich, moist loam, 

 and he will have an object-lesson in the value of thorough 

 enrichment of the soil for ornamental planting. An effort 

 to produce immediate effect, as it is called, is often made 

 by planting large specimens, or by grouping them close 

 together, but the best way to secure early effect, as well as 

 lasting effect, is to feed trees well and encourage them to 

 a speedy growth, which is, as a rule, the most healthful 

 growth. 



Monuments in Public Places. — III. 



THE right placing of out-door monuments can scarcely 

 be called a less important question than their in- 

 trinsic excellence. A beautiful statue may be shorn of 

 half its effect if badly stationed, and a good substructure 

 can very seldom be designed unless the destined station is 

 exactly known ; while, on the other hand, a fine bit of 

 landscape, or dignified open space in a city street, may be 

 seriously injured by the inappropriate placing even of a 

 work that is meritorious in itself. 



We should first remember that, a monument being a pal- 

 pably artificial thing, the best place for it is where other 

 artificial elements are conspicuous ; if in a park, for example, 

 it should be placed at the intersection of roads or paths, 

 on a terrace, or at the side of a formal avenue. No better 

 situation for statues or other comparatively small monu- 

 ments could be imagined than the Mall in the Central Park, 

 where a long double row, alternating with the symmetri- 

 cally spaced Elms, would greatly increase the stately 

 beauty of the promenade, as well as its interest to the 

 masses of people who daily frequent it. Commonwealth 

 Avenue, in Boston, with its wide, open walk between 

 doubled rows of trees, is another place which looks as 

 though specially designed to offer hospitality to the sculp- 

 tor ; and it will be well indeed if the entrance avenue of 

 Druid Park, in Baltimore, some day sees its rows of monoto- 

 nous, ugly urns, suggestive of the "Forty Thieves," re- 

 placed by a varied, yet harmonious, series of works of art. 

 In Washington excellent situations, especially for equestrian 

 or other large monuments, are offered by the "reserva- 

 tions," circles or triangles which so frequently break the 

 lines of radiating streets ; and, of course, every city has 

 certain little squares and open corners where, alone or 

 in combination with trees and shrubs, monuments of one 

 sort or another would be eminently appropriate. 



The French show better taste than ourselves in the plac- 

 ing of their works of sculpture, and a study of their arrange- 



