October 28, 1891.] 



Garden and Forest. 



505 



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, OCTOBER 28, 1891. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Editorial Articlks :— The Effect of Gardening upon the Mind 505 



Village Improvement Societies 506 



Great Hill : A New American Country-seat. — II. 



Mrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer. 506 



Artificial Coffee-beans 507 



Notes on the Distribution of Some Kansas Trees. — III S. C. Mason. 508 



New or Little-known Plants :— Senecio Heritieri. (With figure.). . W. Watson. 510 



Foreigm Correspondence : — London Letter W. Watson. 510 



Bermuda Potatoes Russell Hastings. 511 



Cultural Department : — Adaptation to Locality T. H. Hoskins, M.D. 511 



Vanda Batemanni M. Barker. 512 



Begonia Baumanni J. N. Gerard. 512 



Eulalias, Shrubby Calceolarias T. P. Hatfield. 512 



Correspondence : — A New Way to Preserve Fruit Edward Atkinson. 513 



The Southern Interstate Exposition Professor W. F. Massey. 513 



Vernon Park, Philadelphia S. A. 514 



Begonia Vernon Vilmorin-Andrieux &* Co., J. N. Gerard. 514 



Periodical Literature 514 



Notes 5 r 4 



Illustration : — Senecio Heritieri, Fig. 79 509 



The Effect of Gardening upon the Mind. 



A TASTE for gardening is one of the elemental im- 

 pulses of humanity. There are individuals without 

 it, as there are people without sight or hearing or a sense 

 of smell; but, on the whole, to dig comes naturally to 

 man, and at some time or other in the course of his exist- 

 ence the desire to own a portion of the earth's surface is 

 apt to seize upon him and demand satisfaction. 



This impulse is of maturity rather than of youth, for gar- 

 dening in its larger sense is a thoughtful pursuit, appealing 

 to the broader qualities of the understanding. It is not 

 merely the desire for healthful exercise which stirs a man, 

 but also the wish to learn the secrets of our common 

 mother, to force her hand, as it were, and compel her to 

 rew r ard his toil. The fable of the giant Antaeus, who re- 

 newed his strength when he came in contact with the 

 earth, has a subtle meaning, for it is by this contact that 

 many weary souls have found rest and arisen refreshed. 



To him who is tired of mankind the solitude and peace 

 of a garden have a rare charm. Many a great statesman 

 has turned from the cares of state to till his fields, or culti- 

 vate his flower-beds and trees, his alert brain finding full 

 range for its activity in some scheme of landscape, or some 

 great project for fertilizing a barren waste and rendering it 

 productive. 



Gardening gratifies the thoughtful mind, because it does 

 not look for immediate results. It inculcates patience in 

 all its teachings — patience not only with processes, but 

 with results, for disappointments have often to be met ; the 

 best of schemes fail of accomplishment ; new enemies arise 

 on every hand, visible and hidden. To combat them re- 

 quires perseverance, fertility in resource, promptness in 

 action. 



The gardener's life can never be purely contemplative. 

 However fair his domain, he must perforce keep his eyes 

 open in it, and his mind active. Vigilance must be his at- 

 tribute, or he will have cause for regret. By watching he 



learns what to do and what to leave undone, the habits of 

 the plants he tends — their needs, their uses, the different 

 phases of their beauty. Unconsciously he becomes edu- 

 cated, and his mind lays up new stores of facts and deduc- 

 tions for future use. 



The planter also grows in unselfish zeal as his plans in- 

 crease in scope. He prepares for the future race, not alone 

 for his own joy. The trees he disposes for another gen- 

 eration to sit under ; he plants timber for the heir to cut ; he 

 adds to his broad acres that he may leave them to his 

 children. For himself the toil, for others the fruit of his 

 labors, and thus, setting aside his own recompense, he 

 comes into a larger manhood, into that fullness of life 

 which only belongs to him who has forgotten self and 

 lives for an end he cannot hope to see. 



From all this training should result endurance of un- 

 avoidable evils, fortitude in disappointment, serenity of 

 mind. Thus the garden shows itself to be a school of the 

 higher virtues, of patience, of tranquillity, of vigilance, of 

 fortitude, of unselfishness and high serenity. 



More lessons than these it teaches, therefore small won- 

 der that the groping soul of man, ever seeking higher 

 things, turns to this simplest pursuit as a child to its 

 mother, finding: in her arms comfort for his unrest. Un- 

 consciously he seeks this school, which is so great a help 

 to his spirit, and thinks often it is the pure air and exercise 

 alone that have given tone to his nerves, and fresh vigor 

 to his understanding. 



But, after all, the best thing the garden does for man is 

 to imbue him with a love for home, to anchor him to that 

 one spot of the earth's surface which he calls his own, and 

 to which he can impart some portion of his own individu- 

 ality. The acres he has tilled, the garden-plot he has 

 watered, will always be dear to him and to his children, 

 and it is this desire for a home and an inheritance for those 

 who shall come after him, that drives him to the purchase 

 of land and the beginning of agriculture. 



A man who owns a freehold in his country becomes of 

 account at once ; it lifts him from the position of a tran- 

 sient into the dignity of a resident; he gives hostages to 

 fortune ; he becomes an established citizen in place of 

 a possible tramp, and is of more value in the community 

 forthwith. The effect upon himself is elevating and com- 

 posing. It stills his restlessness, allays ennui, turns the 

 current of his mind into new channels, provides him with 

 an amusement for his leisure hours, while giving occasion 

 for healthful exertion, as well as stimulating wholesome 

 thought. It is opposed to morbidness, it forbids subjec- 

 tivity, it rouses the imagination, and gratifies the love of 

 beauty. 



There is that fine largeness of quality in it as an amuse- 

 ment that appeals to the simplest minds, as well as to the 

 most comprehensive. It is this which proves that it is 

 elemental and human to love a garden, to enjoy the soil, 

 to find comfort in watching the development of plants and 

 trees, and joy in their blossom and fruitage. 



In America we need just this to give us stay and balance. 

 In the older world, where habits are more established, the 

 taste is strong. Here it is overgrown by many things. In 

 so great a land as ours one portion of the soil seems not 

 enough for the citizen. He wants a ranch in Colorado, an 

 Orange-grove in Florida, a sea-side home on the coast of 

 Maine, in addition to his city dwelling. But as the crowd 

 increases and the nation ages, more and more will men 

 concentrate their energies upon one spot, and the love of 

 home and locality will grow more intense, as it is apt to do 

 in the human being as years bring greater quiet to his 

 spirit, and make rest his choicest blessing. 



When we are at last sure that our children will be con- 

 tent to reap what we have sown, to repose under the trees 

 that we have planted, solidity and peace will come to us, 

 and life will grow more simple and more pleasurable to 

 our people. Then will the garden be the true pleasure- 

 ground, and its wise stillness will pervade the character of 

 the men who find its culture a real education, and there 



