December 30, 1891.] 



Garden and Forest. 



613 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office: Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducted by Professor C. S. Sakgent. 



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



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1891. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Editorial Articlhs : — The Old Age of the Year 613 



The Nursery of Mr. George W. Vanderbilt, near Biltmore, North 



Carolina 613 



Notes of a Summer Tourney in Europe. — III J. G. Jack. 614 



George W. Vanderbilt's Nursery Frederick Law Olmsted. 615 



New or Little-known Plants : — Spiraea discolor, var. ariaefolia. (With figure.) 



J. G. Jack. 615 



New Orchids R. A. Rolfe. 616 



Foreign Correspondence: — London Letter W. Watson. 616 



Cultural Department :— Strawberry Notes from Wisconsin, 



Professor E. S. Goff. 618 



The Hellebores M. Barker. 619 



The Cranesbills '. J. Woodward Manning. 619 



Fertilizers for Tomatoes Professor W. F. Massey. 619 



Dwarf Callas, Violas T. D. H. 620 



The Forest : — The Subjection of Torrents by Reforestation of Mountains. — IV. 



(With figure.) M. P. Demontzey. 621 



Correspondence : — In the Shore Towns of Massachusetts. — IV. . J. B. Harrison. 622 



An Indian Orchard E. P. Powell. 623 



Notes 624 



Illustrations : — Spiraea discolor, var. ariaefolia. Fig. 98 617 



Corrective Works in one branch of the Torrent of Grollaz, Fig. 99 620 



The Old Age of the Year. 



THE mildness of the recent season has made the usually 

 cheerless month of December a period of enjoyment. 

 Sunny skies and a warm temperature enduring until the 

 holiday season have rendered outdoor employments not 

 only possible, but agreeable, even during the very shortest 

 days of the year. Fortunate are they who have taken ad- 

 vantage of this opportunity to complete the delayed tasks 

 which properly belong to autumn. The unfrozen ground 

 has permitted the transplanting of trees and shrubs, although 

 late labor of this sort is of doubtful propriety. The plant- 

 ing of. trees in autumn should be completed early, so that 

 the roots may have time before deep freezing to throw out 

 feeders to supply the moisture which drying winds absorb 

 from the limbs all winter long. On the other hand, every 

 hour has been well spent which has been devoted to the 

 preparation of the ground for spring-planting. Large 

 spaces deeply-trenched for trees will have time to settle 

 and solidify during winter, and give a firm basis and com- 

 pact feeding-ground for young roots. Recently worked 

 soil, with its open air spaces, is not in the proper mechani- 

 cal condition to receive the roots of a tree, and it is hard to 

 bring it to the required firmness by ramming or tramping. 

 The late December, too, has been an admirable time for 

 studying plantations already made, for after the leaves 

 have fallen it is easier to decide which trees should be re- 

 moved or pruned. The weather has been unusually favor- 

 able for all pruning operations, whether undertaken to 

 rejuvenate old trees or improve unsightly ones. It is yet 

 in order to cover beds of Lilies or other plants which enjoy 

 a protective mulch which does not exactly keep them 

 warm, but insures a uniform temperature and guards 

 against the alternate freezing and thawing which injures 

 their cell-structure. 



But even after all thought of work is over a stroll down 

 the sunny paths of the garden of an afternoon has a charm 

 of its own, although the bare twigs have lost their summer 



beauty. A few hardy plants still show fresh green foliage, 

 and on many shrubs the berries hang, to give a flash of 

 color here and there. The grass is yet green or a soft 

 golden brown, and the trees with their grace of bare out- 

 line, the variety of tint and texture shown in their bark 

 and the delicate tracery of their interlacing branches 

 against the sky, are quite as attractive as at any other 

 season. The twittering of a few lingering birds, the soft 

 odor of the Firs and Pines, the mildness of the air, delude 

 us into hoping that this second Indian summer may hold 

 over into another year. But the most seductive of these 

 days are often the precursors of wild storms, and one 

 wakes after a moonlit evening of delight to find the ground 

 white with snow, and a lowering sky bending over the 

 frozen earth. 



The old age of the year is treacherous. Chill and 

 paralysis attend it, its days are brief, its nights are long. 

 In storm and darkness it creeps to its end. However it may 

 put on the semblance of life and warmth, death and icy cold 

 are at hand, and the last leaves are dropping into its open 

 grave. It is the period of retrospect, the time forgetting rid 

 of the cast-off garments of the past, and clothing ourselves 

 afresh for the coming of th e New Year. But if the last week of 

 the old year be a reminder of disappointments, there yet lin- 

 gers in it that hope which is freshly born with its length- 

 ening days. Though the sap be chilled in the branches 

 of the trees, it still stirs in the trunks and warms the roots, 

 and prepares in silence the new growth. The old leaves 

 help to protect and nourish the young shoots ; from death 

 issues life ; and so the great unending cycle sweeps on, 

 explaining to us that all is but change. End there is none, 

 only rest and new birth, the burial of the seed and the 

 resurrection of the plant, the sorrow of evening and the 

 joy of the dawn, the passing of the old year and the happy 

 birth of the new. This lesson of the garden and the forest 

 is a lesson of comfort and cheer. It upbears the mind in 

 failure, and encourages it to renewed effort and to patient 

 waiting for results. The seed shall not fail to bear fruit, 

 even if long hidden from view in the bosom of the earth, 

 which buries but to nourish, and destroys but to bring new 

 life. 



In another column of this issue will be found an inter- 

 esting account of the nursery of Mr. George W. Vander- 

 bilt, near Biltmore, North Carolina, together with a sketch 

 of the proposed forest and arboretum so far as their plans 

 have been matured. This enterprise is wholly of a private 

 character, and the account seems to have been prepared 

 for a magazine of local circulation to meet the natural 

 interest in the undertaking which has been manifested by 

 Mr. Vanderbilt's neighbors. We reproduce it, however, 

 because the matter is of more than local importance, and 

 because this is the first authentic publication that has been 

 made of the scope and purpose of the work. The estab- 

 lishment of a nursery containing such a variety of woody 

 species is of itself an event of the first importance to all 

 intelligent lovers of trees ; and if the arboretum project is 

 carried out upon the lines indicated, it will become an 

 institution of world-wide usefulness. Of course the project 

 now is only a promise, and the realization of its possibili- 

 ties in full measure can only be attained after years of 

 patient study and labor, of study and labor, too, organized 

 and directed and controlled by the broadest knowledge 

 and the most thorough training which the age can furnish. 

 The conception, however, is a noble one, and it is en- 

 couraging to be assured that the foundations of the work 

 have been laid with intelligence and care. The almost 

 unparalleled richness of the southern Appalachian region in 

 species of trees and shrubs, and the number of exotics 

 which would thrive on the banks of the French Broad 

 River, warrant the belief that a collection of unrivaled 

 interest and value could be established there, while the 

 grandeur and beauty of the natural scenery of western 

 North Carolina must prove an inspiration to any artist of 



