506 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 192. 



learn the needed lessons of perseverance, and patient wait- 

 ing for the good the future brings, leading lives without 

 hurry, full of calm interest in their surroundings, and with 

 no wish for change. 



Village Improvement Societies. 



AT the recent annual meeting of the Beverly (Massa- 

 chusetts) Improvement Society, Professor Goodale, of 

 Harvard University, made a few remarks relative to the 

 work of village improvement societies in general. He said 

 that the range of plants used for decorative purposes in the 

 northern states can be much widened. It is a general prin- 

 ciple in vegetable physiology that many plants thrive much 

 better when transferred to climates and soils similar to, but 

 not identical with, those of their nativity. This is illus- 

 trated in a striking, but unfortunate, manner by the com- 

 mon plants which have invaded parts of Australasia. The 

 thistles and brambles attain a size and vigor unknown in 

 their former home in the Old World, while one of the Roses, 

 well known as Sweet-brier, runs riot over large areas. It is 

 a familiar fact that all of our troublesome weeds in the 

 northern Atlantic states, with perhaps one or two excep- 

 tions like Rudbeckia, or Purple Cone-flower, are intruders 

 from other countries, chiefly Europe and South America. 

 On the other hand, the weeds of German gardens and agri- 

 cultural lands are said by Professor Drude, of Dresden, to 

 be mostly from the Mediterranean regions, but the inva- 

 sions in the uncultivated districts are largely from America, 

 such as Oenothera, the Evening Primrose, Mimulus, the 

 Meask-flower, and Rudbeckia, just mentioned. Every one 

 knows how admirably many of the Japanese and Chinese 

 species of flowering plants grow in the Occident. This 

 list of plants can be largely augmented particularly in the 

 direction of arboreous and arborescent vegetation. We 

 who live so near the Arnold Arboretum, at Forest Hills, 

 only an hour's ride from this room, can see, if we choose, 

 the progress of experiments directed toward this end. On 

 those ample grounds, one can see for himself the oriental 

 plants which are proving of worth here, and he can make 

 his own selections of plants for the adornment of the streets 

 of onr villages. A little pressure brought to bear upon our 

 enterprising nurserymen would increase the scope of their 

 catalogues, adding thereto plants of promise from the east- 

 ern countries, China and Japan. Those which we now 

 have in general use are favorites ; the list should be 

 lengthened. 



Dr. Goodale spoke also in regard to the desirability of 

 preserving some accessible nooks and corners for our native 

 plants. Such shelters need hardly more than a supply of 

 water to help their guests through the hard times of drought 

 which are sure to come at intervals in our climate, and 

 which are exceedingly destructive to transplanted vegeta- 

 tion. If these sheltered nooks are occasionally cleared 

 from the ever-watchful and aggressive invading weeds 

 they can be made to brighten many a spot which would 

 otherwise be unsightly. Essex County has a high reputa- 

 tion for the attractiveness of its native vegetation. This 

 reputation is very largely due to the fact that the county 

 has long possessed ardent and successful students of 

 botany. From Cutler's time, through that of Oakes and 

 Russell, down to the present, when Robinson and Sears 

 and many others have taken up the agreeable task, the at- 

 tention paid to the native plants of the county has been 

 remarkable. The results of this attention are partly treas- 

 ured in the excellent collections of the Peabody Academy, 

 in Salem, and are practically at the command of any citi- 

 zens of the county. There is no excuse here for not making 

 much of our native plants. Other counties in the Atlantic 

 states ought to emulate the example of this county. 



Another of the topics taken up by the speaker was the 

 change which has come over the manner of looking at 

 certain features of plant-life. The relations of the soil to 

 water and air, and to the chemical substances which form 

 the so-called ash-constituents of plants, are among the 

 most interesting subjects in nature. The plant stands mid- 



way between inorganic matter and animal life, manufac- 

 turing from water and what we may well call "impurities," 

 of various kinds, organic and organized substance, part of 

 which is utilizable by animals as food. Of late years we 

 have come to believe that through the agency of infinitely 

 minute organisms, known as microbes, part of the nitro- 

 gen in the air, clinging to soil, may be combined with 

 other elements in such forms as to be available to plants. 



Another change which has taken place in our method of 

 looking at plants comes from conclusive evidence that all 

 the living matter in the plant is connected together, even 

 where the cell-walls seem at first to be closed partitions ; 

 and thus all portions of the plant are constituents of a 

 community, in the strictest sense of the term. Formerly it 

 was held that the conjoined organs and contiguous cells 

 throughout the organism are parts of a corporate body. 

 This true view is rendered more impressive by the convic- 

 tion that all the living matter in all parts of the plant makes 

 up a united whole. 



Other topics discussed were, the principles which under- 

 lie pruning and the healing of wounds, the times for trans- 

 planting and similar practical matters. 



Dr. Goodale expressed the view that the interest in prac- 

 tical questions like these, which come naturally before a 

 Adllage improvement society, can be much increased by 

 occasional meetings during the winter, when, by a suitable 

 division of labor, the freshest intelligence relative to ad- 

 vance in vegetable physiology and horticulture can be pre- 

 sented by the members and familiarly discussed. 



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



FROM the north side of the house at Great Hill we look over 

 the lawn, already described, which is bounded on two sides 

 by woods, and on the third by the sea ; and the woods con- 

 tinue, running near the west side of the house, down to the 

 water's edge on the south. Here the main front looks over a 

 still larger lawn, comprising some eight or ten acres, while a 

 narrower expanse of sward lies between the building and the 

 eastern shore. Thus the lawns, taken as a whole, are flanked 

 on two sides by forest and on two by blue water. The whole 

 expanse they now cover was, a few years ago, a tangled mass 

 of bushes and stones and little trees, with here and there a few 

 of larger growth. The labor of clearing was great, but, fortu- 

 nately, the slopes were naturally beautiful. A straight gravel 

 walk leads from the east door to a stone pier ; but on the south 

 the main stretch of lawn is not cut, but encircled by paths, one 

 lying close to the forest on the right and the other not far from 

 the water on the left. All along the water's edge is a low 

 growth of shrubs, vines and flowers, chiefly Sumachs and 

 Golden-rods, which make a beautiful border when autumn 

 approaches. The walk near the water passes at a little dis- 

 tance from the house through an irregular group of trees, 

 small Oaks and tall gnarled old Tupelos, the latter forced by 

 the denser growth that once surrounded them into a shape so 

 unlike that which is typical of the species that it needs a close 

 examination to prove them what they are. Otherwise, the 

 lawns are unbroken, save for a few small Oaks and Pines, left 

 here and there in well-chosen positions, which, with the lapse 

 of time, will become interesting trees. The lawns are not so 

 smooth and velvety as those one finds at Newport or Lenox, 

 but for this very reason are all the better in keeping with their 

 surroundings. They are well covered with thrifty grass, and 

 are visibly lawns and not pastures ; and their green is bright 

 enough to form a vivid contrast with the blue of the water be- 

 yond and the somewhat dusky tone of the Oaks which chiefly 

 compose their bordering woods. Nothing could be simpler 

 than the scene or its arrangement ; but its pronounced sim- 

 plicity constitutes its striking charm. Seldom does one see 

 such broad stretches of sward contrasted with such simple 

 masses of forest and framed in so beautiful a circle of water, 

 with the long line of the Falmouth shore lying against the 

 horizon. No details attract the eye to the disturbance of the 

 general effect of breadth, dignity and repose, and nothing has 

 been done to alter the essential character of the spot as Nature 

 designed it. One would certainly be at a loss where to look 

 for another country place of anything like this size of which 

 it could be said that not a tree or shrub or flower has ever been 

 planted. But this is true of Great Hill, if we except only a few 

 vines which clamber up the piazzas of the house and some 

 narrow flower-beds close to its foundations. Nof a tree is in 



