434 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number iS6. 



asked for any important increase in price, the law will 

 surely protect you as it would in a bargain of any other 

 sort. But it is instructive to remember that in almost 

 every case where client and artist have recently come into 

 our courts, it is the artist whose claims have been sus- 

 tained. When dealing with an artist many men, who are 

 honorable and fair in other business matters, seem to 

 think they have a right to get something for nothing, or to 

 get more for a given price than was promised them. This 

 proves that, as yet, we do not value art as we do other 

 commodities, nor do we realize that the work of a man's 

 brain has a marketable worth as fully entitled to respect 

 as that of the work of his hands. If, indeed, we estimated 

 art as it deserves — high above any commercial product — 

 we should even feel willing to pay more for what we get 

 than was at first decided. No artist, be he ever so con- 

 scientious, can, at the outset, tell to a dollar what a large 

 and complicated piece of work will cost; and if we deprive 

 him of the right to a reasonable margin of excess, we may 

 fatally injure his work, and so commit a crime against 

 him and against the art he practices. Vitruvius recognized 

 this fact ; although few clients to-day would be ready for 

 a law which bade them stand ready to "add one-fourth 

 more " to the contract price of a piece of architectural or 

 landscape-gardening work if the artist demanded it ; in 

 fact, a much smaller increase often discourages them. 



This may prove that modern men do not estimate art as 

 highly as the ancients did ; but, although human nature has 

 not radically changed since the days of Augustus, the pe- 

 cuniary conscience of artists has at least developed some- 

 what. It is still a common enough occurrence to find 

 estimates exceeded, but seldom, we apprehend, to such an 

 extent as fifty per cent., unless the client is wholly or par- 

 tially at fault. If landscape-gardeners or architects or 

 other artists were asked to fix a legal margin for such ex- 

 cess, they would probably be content with a smaller 

 amount than the twenty-five per cent, of the contract sum. 

 Vitruvius regarded this alleged Ephesian law as hard 

 from the architect's point of view. Modern communities 

 would regard it as very hard from the client's standpoint. 

 We may conclude, then, that nineteen centuries have im- 

 proved the architect more than the client, and that it is 

 especially needful now for the client to look to his own 

 development. 



Nearly two years ago Professor W. W. Bailey com- 

 plained in the columns of this paper (vol. ii., p. 610) 

 that the linemen of some telegraph companies in Provi- 

 dence had been climbing the street-trees, and had muti- 

 lated them with the spikes on their feet, so as to invite at- 

 tack from rot-fungus. Nobody seemed to have any au- 

 thority to stop outrages of this sort, although Professor 

 Bailey was informed in a later issue (vol. iii., p. 46) that 

 the incident which aroused his feeling offered an admira- 

 ble opportunity for testing the' power of the citizen against 

 the invasion of his rights. We allude to this matter again 

 simply to introduce the statement that the last Legislature 

 of Pennsylvania took pains to pass a law which provides 

 directly for the recovery of damages to trees along the pub- 

 lic highways by telegraph, telephone or electric-light com- 

 panies. In the first section of this law it is enacted that 

 when any company shall have erected poles and lines 

 along any highway in the state it is lawful for the owner 

 of the land adjoining, who may claim to be damaged by 

 the maintenance of such lines by reason of the cutting of 

 trees, whether in the highway or in the land adjoining, to 

 petition the court of the county in which the damage has 

 been committed ; upon which petition the court shall ap- 

 point three citizens as viewers, who, being duly sworn to 

 the faithful performance of their duty, shall assess the 

 damage done to the petitioner and report the same to the 

 court, which report shall, upon its presentation, be con- 

 firmed nisi ; and if no appeal be entered to the same within 

 ten days it shall be confirmed absolutely and judgment en- 



tered against the company. Lovers of trees in other states, 

 who are contemplating additional legislation for their pro- 

 tection, would do well to study the text of this law, which 

 was enacted on the 2d of June, 1891. 



A Garden Pool. 



ONE of the most important points to be considered in 

 landscape-gardening is the relation of parts to the 

 whole. A thing beautiful in itself may be so out of pro- 

 portion to its surroundings that it fails in effect, either 

 from being so large that it overpowers its neighborhood, 

 or so small that it is insignificant. Constructed detail is 

 particularly difficult to manage, so that its artificiality is 

 not apparent enough to strike a false note in the general 

 harmony. Rocks in composition are unruly, as too many 

 unfortunate struggles to introduce them into parks and 

 gardens bear witness. If isolated they are apt to be dis- 

 cordant, if grouped they are inclined to be cluttered ; wit- 

 ness the rockeries in which so many country dwellers take 

 pride. A cairn of stones interspersed with pockets of 

 loam is a melancholy sight in winter, and in summer is 

 too apt to be meaningless and intrusive, even when imper- 

 fectly concealed by masses of incongruous plants, 

 sprinkled by a palpably unnatural fountain, and severely 

 exiled, by trim cutting, from the lawn, of which it should 

 form an integral part. 



Appropriateness is too rarely considered in ornaments 

 of this kind, which seldom bear refined relation to the 

 things about them. Rough and informal constructions 

 are particularly out of place in a purely formal system of 

 lawn-planting, and are only to be endured where the nature 

 of the ground suggests them, and enhances their beauty 

 by suggesting that they are natural. We have selected the 

 rocky basin, an illustration of which is to be found on page 

 439, because it gives an idea of fitting garden decoration, 

 where the space is limited and the surroundings wild. 

 The picturesque pool represented is a feature of a small 

 terraced garden, built out from the rocky side of a steep 

 hill that descends abruptly to the sea-shore of Massachu- 

 setts Bay. This terrace is approached from the level on 

 which the house above it is built, by a rough stone stair- 

 way, that has for a balustrade a huge granite boulder, 

 overgrown with Ivy, and surmounted with trees. Great 

 rocks enclose the terrace on three sides, and down the 

 almost perpendicular face of one of them trickles the 

 thread-like stream that falls into the pool below. The 

 overflow wanders away in a small grassy channel, along 

 the edge of which tiny water-plants grow, and Cardinal- 

 flowers blossom. In the basin a pink Water-lily is bloom- 

 ing, dainty dweller in a fairy home, and somewhere in the 

 shadows a gold-fish has a lurking-place. On the stone 

 curb a blue jug, and a Japanese drinking-vessel formed of a 

 shell, with a handle of bamboo, give the requisite touch of 

 human needs and uses to this lonely dell. 



The little green-turfed terrace is encircled with flowers 

 that thrive in this warm nook, where the morning sun 

 shines hotly, and where its south-western rays are tem- 

 pered by the shade of great forest-trees. So steep is the hill 

 that the shining waters of the ocean are seen through the 

 topmost branches of tall Oaks and Pines, while others 

 stand far below. The brown seedy spike of a Dock-plant 

 hangs out against the lichened crag, and forms a spot of 

 rich color amid the prevailing gray, while all about, from 

 crevices in the rocks, and from shady recesses beneath 

 them, spring Ferns and Grasses, with wild flowers and pic- 

 turesque weeds. Some young Sassafras-trees, or rather 

 bushes, near by, which have sprung up of their own accord, 

 have a particularly pleasing effect with their yellow-green 

 leaves, and down the face of the rock straggles a Black- 

 berry-vine, as perfect in outline and graceful in sweep as 

 if it had been drawn by the hand of a Japanese artist, each 

 cluster of finely serrated leaves having a distinct value 

 against the mottled stony background, which also gives a 



