196 



The Garden Magazine, May, 1922 



of the Department, Prof. L. C. Corbett, definitely asserted that 

 in his opinion the restrictions would be increased rather than 

 lessened. Is this coming conference then the official step to- 

 ward that end? 



From the first The Garden Magazine has suspected that 

 the Department of Agriculture was construing the powers of a 

 quarantine for a distinctly different purpose. Dr. Marlatt, 

 the Board's Chairman, has indeed made the belated statement 

 that the idea behind the Board's administration of Quarantine 

 37 is to completely exclude all plants from abroad ! It may or 

 may not be a question whether all plants now ordinarily used 

 in adornment of private estates can be produced here of an equal 

 quality; that is not the crucial point after all. Rather it is the 

 right of the Board to use a measure of sanitation for the pur- 

 pose of dictating to the horticulturist what given varieties of 

 Peony, or Iris, or Rose, or what not, it, in its bureaucratic 

 wisdom, considers are needed for the ornamentation of our 

 gardens. 



IT MAY be submitted that since the Board is willing to admit 

 plants commercially all the exigencies are satisfactorily met. 

 The Board appears to hold that the nurserymen and-florists are 

 the proper media for the introduction and distribution of new 

 plants, and that they keep sufficient eye abroad to see that 

 American gardens are up to date. The facts, however, are 

 quite otherwise. 



It is perfectly well recognized among the real builders 

 of gardening in America that the amateur is the great 

 pioneer. The investigative spirit and the disregard for ex- 

 pense on the part of progressive amateurs — such as form the 

 family of Garden Magazine subscribers — the enthusiasm of 

 genuine lovers of gardens and the great botanical gardens 

 are responsible for bringing in the new things. In both cases 

 other amateurs see them and desiring them, create the demand 



which forces importation by the trade. Dr. Marlatt's disbe- 

 lief of this obvious fact is absolutely at variance with a hun- 

 dred years of experience and with all the knowledge of any one 

 who has kept in touch with the trend of horticultural endeavor. 

 It simply again emphasizes the sheer wrong of putting a man, 

 however sincere and able, to do a thing with which he has no 

 sympathy and no intimate acquaintance. 



There is a basic inconsistence in the attitude of the Federal 

 Horticultural Board as well as a basic wrong. If those plants 

 which Dr. Marlatt is willing to let come in for propagation pur- 

 poses are not for " the mere adornment of private estates," what 

 are they for? When Mrs. B., a private individual, endeavors 

 to import new Astilbes for adorning her private estate, it is 

 wrong and a danger that must not continue. If, however, 

 B. & Co. (dealers) import them and sell their immediate pro- 

 duct to Mrs. B. (amateur) that is right! Under what color of 

 law or equity is it within the scope of any government official 

 to tell any individual what he wants, or where he is to get it, 

 if that individual has the price and if its introduction is not a 

 danger to his neighbors? 



You, garden owners of America, must act promptly in pre- 

 senting your case, not to the Federal Horticultural Board, but 

 to the Secretary of Agriculture insisting on your rights as citi- 

 zens; also write to your senators and representatives in 

 Congress urging that the Department of Agriculture attend to 

 its legitimate fields of activity and stop this endeavor to control 

 (and as we fear, strangle) the development of horticulture in 

 the United States. 



SEEING the Italian Villas," by Leon Henry Zach has 

 been reprinted from Landscape Architecture in pamphlet 

 form and may be had upon application. It is a concise 

 itinerary of villas worth visiting, their whereabouts, and how 

 to reach them. 



the ope^ c° LUM K^ 



Readers' Interchange of Experience and Comment 



Alpines of Our Own Sierras 



To the Editors of The Garden Magazine: 



f HAVE read with delight, Clarence Lown's and Louise Wilder's 

 *■ articles on Alpines and their culture in your February number. As 

 for the references to Miss Jekyll, she has been a life-long inspiration! 

 Years ago, after reading her "Wall and Water Gardens" I had a dry 

 wall built and a pool dug within a week, and within a year had gathered, 

 from the Alleghanies and the Adirondacks the makings of a veritable 

 pool in the forest. For a background native Rhododendron and Azalea 

 tumbling over a dry wall set thick with Walking-leaf Ferns; and where 

 the rough banks sloped down to the water's edge, the Sarraceias, Swamp 

 Orchids, and Sundew did nicely. At different times, I had thirteen 

 different native Orchids bloom for me in this very small corner of Long 

 Island, within the limits of New York City (where I then lived). 



I have wondered in reading thfe articles referred to if our native en- 

 thusiasts have ever seen our own true Alpines in the High Sierras, 

 though I doubt the possibility of naturalizing them at lower altitudes. 



When you get above eight thousand feet, the Heath family is the 

 most conspicuous and they are true Alpines, forming mats of thickly 

 set leaves and showery flowers. 



The Brianthus or Red Heather carries splendid heads of magenta 

 flowers which make sheets of color among the rocks. The Labrador 

 Tea (Ledum glandulosum) is more of a shrubby bush with broad white 

 flower heads topped with a hazy lace of stamens. But of all our Heaths, 

 and indeed of all Sierra Alpines that I know, the most enchanting is 

 the Cassiope (C. mertensiana) or White Heath. I was only fortunate 

 enough to find it once in its native haunts, at an altitude of about ten 



thousand feet, at the very end of August. In turning the corner of a 

 great wall of rock, fringing a cleft along its base I came upon the Cas- 

 siope, there where the croziers of the Ferns, with unbelievable optim- 

 ism, were just uncurling from beneath the edges of the snow banks. 



The leaves of the White Heath are closely pressed along the stems, 

 quite like a branch of Arborvitae, and every few inches on a delicate 

 wiry stem, perhaps an inch long, hangs a dainty little bell, quite like 

 Lily-of the-valley in texture and in shape. 



The altitude, of course, makes some difference, but I should say that 

 from eight to twelve thousand feet was the stronghold of the most 

 beautiful Sierra Alpines. 



The wonderful blue Polemonium (P. eximium) I have only found in 

 the neighborhood of twelve thousand feet, growing in among the most 

 impossible looking rocks. Although I have found it several times (near 

 the top of Mt. Dana and again in the Kings River Country, just north 

 of Mt. Whitney;) I have always been a little late to see it in its blue 

 glory. The Alpine Willow Herb (Epilobium obcordatum) I have 

 found at ten thousand feet and above. Its low small-leaved stems are 

 lost beneath the beautiful silky, rose-pink flowers. The Alpine Prim- 

 rose (P. suffrutescens) is very much the same in color and in habit of 

 growth, tucked close around the base or in the clefts of granite rocks, 

 but the flowers are not so showy and the leaves form dense 

 little rosettes at the base in true alpine fashion. There is only one 

 of the rare Alpines that I have sought in vain, the Androsace (A. septen- 

 trionalis) but it is always well to keep something yet to hope for and 

 climb for. The Alpine Sorrel (Oxyria digyna) is as lovely as any 

 flower with its brilliant crimson heads of seed elbowing the Primroses 

 and Epilobiums, 



