f 



34 THE PHILADELPHIA FLORIST. [June- 



'Ua Calla (Bthiopica, now Klchardia cethiopica or Egyptian Lily, into the i^\ 

 ponds in the southern portion of that country, to vary with its tropical ca 

 aspect the monotony of the surface, clothed with Nympkcea and 

 Nuphar, and Typha angustifolia, and many other pretty aquatic plants, 

 —let not the daring Horticulturist suppose that there is no limit set to 

 human skill and ingenuity, when in close competition with nature; 

 there are decidedly limits set which must endure with time — insur- 

 mountable obstacles to the generalization of the vegetation of the 

 world. And looking at this matter in the most familiar light, apart 

 from any question of Divine wisdom or Supreme skill in the arrange- 

 ment of nature's scheme, must not the propriety of such a law be evi- 

 dent to the most casual observer, when he considers the love of change 

 which characterizes the human mind — the love of variety even in 

 the individuals of his own species. Man loves variety in form and 

 coloring, and taste and smell; looks in new districts for objects unfa- 

 miliar to him, because he knows they are to be met with. Were such 

 absent, he would return to his former locality or place of abode dis- 

 concerted, disappointed ; his desires conform to the natural arrange- 

 ments of nature — the arrangements of nature square with his moderate 

 desires ; he looks in the country for green fields — they are there ; in 

 woods for foliage and shade — it is there; in the streams for minute 

 specimens of vegetable and animal life — they are there. He does not 

 look for the whale on the mountain side, or for the Arabian steed 

 bounding through the deep, no more than he would look for Pinus 

 sylvestris in the meadow lands of the south of France, or the Arau- 

 carta imbricata on the sandy plains of New Jersey ; or the Vanilla 

 plant hanging on the bark of our Pennsylvania oak ; or the Acacia pu- 

 bescens growing by the side of the sweet shrub (Calycanthus.) We 

 have hinted what we do not expect to see according to the natural re- 

 gulations which govern climate. We have now to enumerate what sur- 

 prising results have ensued from skill and ingenuity directed to the 

 acclimatisation of the plants of one country in another — the desire 

 to vary the landscape, to refresh the eye by throwing in new forms, to 

 break the monotony of the long rows of trees of similar outline and cha- 

 racter. The foreigner who visits this country is struck (especially if he 

 comes from Britain) with the aspect of nature in our forest trees ; he 

 sees whole lines of beautiful cedars, still left as they have been plant- 

 ed by nature, unsurrounded by any brushwood or bramble; his old 

 friend, the Hawthorn (Crataegus oxyacantha) is almost wholly absent 

 as a hedge-row ; the Gorse or furze, which in some districts in Britain 

 is the prevailing feature in the fences, is not at all seen in this char- 

 acter. The evergreen privet (Ligustrum vulgare) not at all common, 

 and nothing will after a time be seen but Osage, Osage, Osage! with ( 



■uits dark shining foliage and spiny branches after age has matured it. C 



mos^ ^od 



