September 16, 1891.] 



Garden and Forest. 



441 



other experimenters ought to be cautious about claiming any- 

 thing new. 



Hybridizing must be the short and sure road to really new 

 varieties of merit. I can only speak from a short experience, 

 but my experiments this year seem to warrant more confi- 

 dence than those of last year. 



Each Sweet Pea blossom is an independent and self-fertiliz- 

 ing flower. The keel is a sac containing the stamens and 

 pistil, and in healthy blossoms the latter rarely are exposed. 

 So jealously does each blossom fertilize itself that it sheds its 

 pollen when about half-open, and the sac at the upper end 

 draws snugly up around the anthers, pressing them closely 

 about the stigma. Cross-fertilization, even by bees, is almost 

 impossible. The bumble-bee comes, but he works down at 

 the base of the wings. No member of the Pulse family ap- 

 pears to be in less danger of mixing than the Sweet Pea. 



But here is a neat and difficult opportunity for artificial hy- 

 bridizing. My experiments in trying to cross them after the 

 blossoms were open had no effect. This year I have worked 

 on the buds. They must be taken before they have pollinated, 

 and to mutilate the bud so early is rough treatment. The few 

 pods which I have secured this year are a modest but much- 

 prized return for the patient labor expended. My judgment 

 now is that it is preferable to take the lowest bud on the stem, 

 at just the right stage, and remove the others, to give all the 

 strength to one. Delicately open the sac and cut away the 

 stamens. Let the bud stand till it would naturally pollinate, 

 and then cross-fertilize as you wish. Better than using a 

 pencil-brush I have found that by tearing away the standard 

 and wings of the blossom whose pollen you wanted, you could 

 lay open the sac gently with a penknife, and, like an oyster on 

 half-shell, you had the pollen in a handy vessel and could 

 press it on to the stigma of the other. Judgment must be 

 used as to the time to transfer the pollen. Open the bud in 

 the early morning, and perhaps by nine or ten o'clock it is 

 sufficiently advanced. 



It may be that in this country the results will compare un- 

 favorably with Eckford's, but further experiments are worth 

 making. Great possibilities are in this beautiful and fragrant 

 flower. Who will get the first real yellow Sweet Pea ? 



W. T. Hutchins. 



Ellington, Conn. 



Correspondence. 

 Gardening- on the Shores of Buzzards Bay. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — It may be well to state, for the benefit of those persons 

 who have an inaccurate idea of the situation of Buzzards Bay, 

 or a mistaken or vague idea of the character of the country 

 about it, that the bay is, in shape, like a horseshoe. It opens 

 on the ocean only to the south. The butt of Cape Cod forms 

 the north-east and east side, and lies between the bay and the 

 Atlantic. The land hereabout is not a level waste of drifting 

 white sand ; it is, on the contrary, a rolling country, rising to 

 considerable heights, mostly covered with wood, and full of 

 lakes, ponds and brooks. It offers to lovers of gardening — 

 who are but beginning to appreciate it — great advantages over 

 those undertaking the art in most other parts of our country ; 

 and one who is familiar with it foresees that the number and 

 beauty of its cultivated grounds, and the variety and rarity of 

 the trees, shrubs and flowers to be found in them, will one day 

 make it famous. 



This land of promise, like England, Japan and the shores of 

 Puget Sound, lies near a warm ocean current, which regulates 

 the temperature and modifies the extremes of heat and cold, 

 and no other part of our country, except the Pacific coast, has 

 so equable a temperature and so great a rainfall ; while, be- 

 sides innumerable lakes, ponds and brooks, inexhaustible 

 supplies of water may be had from underground. 



It is true that much — though by no means all — of the soil 

 is poor. Sometimes it is of sand and nothing else ; but mea- 

 dows, pockets of loam, and large muck-beds furnish plenty of 

 other material. Where soil is lacking it can be made or im- 

 ported, if need be, but climate and rainfall can neither be pro- 

 duced nor bought. Besides, sand is a much better basis than 

 either gravel or clay, and is a most useful, often an essential, 

 constituent ; and without admixture of any other soil will con- 

 vey to a plant all the artificial food that may be supplied. The 

 loss of nutriment by leaching through sand is a theory with 

 the weight of evidence against it. 



That the neighborhood — indeed, the whole of Cape Cod and 

 Nantucket — was once covered with noble trees, is matter of 

 record ; that it will and does now support such is matter of 



demonstration ; for within a short drive of Wareham are hun- 

 dreds of acres of tall forest, containing scores of tall trees, 

 giving convincing proof of the capability of the soil. The 

 Atlantic coast of Massachusetts is not fended from the cold 

 northerly winds from seaward ; but here the Cape intervenes, 

 and the wooded shores of Buzzards Bay afford a local protec- 

 tion which is invaluable. Here are found, then, the best cli- 

 mate, the maximum of water-supply and shelter, and we have 

 soil, or the means of making it. 



The aim of good taste should doubtless be to choose, for the 

 purpose of giving pleasure, only those trees and shrubs that 

 grow cheerfully and thrive ; and while great variety and rare 

 specimens add much to the interest of a collection, experi- 

 ments with doubtful exotics are inconsistent with that sense 

 of rest, harmony and gladness which one would wish to pro- 

 duce in a natural garden. At the same time, it cannot be de- 

 nied that there is a fascination in trying these experiments ; 

 nor can it be denied that English gardens, for instance, have 

 a quality which we can never get, because we have not the 

 plants that furnish them so richly. 



Even here, on and about Buzzards Bay, I doubt if the Eng- 

 lish Laurel — which is a necessary part, singly and in masses, 

 of every cottage-yard and every lawn in England — can be left 

 in the ground the year round. The fantastic Chili Pine, which 

 there breaks the sky-line so picturesquely, and emphasizes the 

 quiet order of the garden, probably cannot, but the English 

 Holly and the Cedar of Lebanon, on the other hand, un- 

 doubtedly can, for both have survived more than one winter 

 and summer here ; so has, indeed, the Exmouth Magnolia, 

 the most brilliant in leaf of any of them, but it is not thrifty. 

 About Boston even the American Holly is grown always 

 with difficulty, and rarely with success ; here it is native, and 

 is delightful in the vigor of its green when other leaves 

 are gone, and in its brilliant decoration of scarlet ber- 

 ries. 



Here two most beautiful and much-neglected trees, the 

 Tupelo and Sassafras, are in their own home. A real Tupelo 

 cannot be had from a nursery — a nursery-bred tree has neither 

 character nor foliage. The only way is to choose in some pas- 

 ture or upland an orthodox-looking Tupelo, not over-large — 

 one that has decidedly a look and way of its own— and then, 

 with a long-bladed narrow post spade, to cut a circle round 

 the tree, severing every root on the way, and to drive the 

 spade through under the tree, dividing the down-going roots 

 as well. Wait a year, and then in the spring move your tree. 

 Let the new hole be dug four feet deep, even though the same 

 soil is replaced ; fertilize it liberally, for which purpose wood- 

 ashes are excellent ; and by and by you will have a tree of 

 some interesting and beautiful shape, covered with more leaves 

 than can be found in the same space on any tree, each leaf as 

 rich in color and lustrous as that of an English Holly, and 

 the whole tree in autumn a jewel of deep and brilliant 

 color. 



The Sassafras, with the liveliness given by fresh color and 

 variety in the form and motion of the leaves, is a charming 

 tree all summer ; and, as every one knows, its leaves turn 

 with great beauty in the autumn. It may adopt, or be made 

 to adopt, other forms than that of a succession of parasol-like 

 layers of leaves on a slender trunk, which is its natural habit. 

 If cut down close, it will sprout into a bush ; suckers will ap- 

 pear on every side until a thicket appears, rising everywhere 

 to the middle, a natural bit of artificial work ; or, again, a good- 

 sized stem may be cut five or six feet from the ground, and 

 the tree forced to grow so freely that the branches droop and 

 the whole becomes a pile of charming foliage, and a mass of 

 glowing color later. 



Returning again to the advantages of the place, there are 

 many trees and shrubs more or less useful, more or less 

 doubtful, elsewhere in Massachusetts, which may be counted 

 upon here. Among these are the Sweet Gum, with its star- 

 shaped leaves that keep their color and freshness long into 

 and often beyond October ; and even then keeps many that 

 are green as a setting for the crimson-maroon and golden-yel- 

 low of the rest. The Hollies, the ever-green sweet-scented 

 Magnolia glauca, the Irish Yew and Juniper, the Golden Yew, 

 the Cypress, all the Retinisporas, are thrifty here ; and I am 

 told by a most trustworthy person that there is a Live Oak of 

 considerable size, of many years' standing and in good health, 

 near Kingston. 



Many of the ornamental evergreens which elsewhere must 

 be stored in the pit, or, if left out, are made ragged with frost- 

 bites and brown patches, appear here after the winter in per- 

 fect condition, with no protection except perhaps mulching; 

 so do, of course, Rhododendrons and Mountain Laurel, which 

 flourish greatly. 



