FLORA 



AND SYLVA. 



Vol. II. No. 16.] 



JULY, 1 9 04. 



[Monthly. 



FRUIT TREES AND THEIR 

 FLOWERS. 

 After one of our most beautiful springs 

 as regards flowers, both of woodland and 

 garden — miles of Narcissi, carpets of 

 Bluebells and Primrose, and the bolder 

 charms of the hardier plants — the fair- 

 est thing we have seen this year is the 

 orchard beauty clustered near the house 

 at Penshurst in Kent, rank after rank of 

 lovely and varied Apple trees in mid- 

 May, more beautiful than Lilies, or al- 

 most any flower, if we take into account 

 the colour of bud and blossom, with 

 their variety of hues the most delicate and 

 refined. It is too much the fashion now- 

 adays to always separate things into " or- 

 namental" and " non-ornamental," and 

 it is a curious reflection on this, that the 

 most beautiful of all the effects of a gar- 

 den in a fertile country like Kent should 

 be the things that are not usually classed 

 as ornamental^ viz. ,the simple beauty of 

 things grown for use. Although we can- 

 not grow the Fig or the Vine, the Peach 

 or the Apricot, as orchard trees,we have 

 still this great advantage,that as to bloom 

 our hardy fruit trees are more beautiful 

 than those of the south. This is all the 

 greater reason why we should secure that 

 beauty inahigher degree than is general 



about the country house. Why the strict 

 separation of orchard and flower garden 

 should be considered necessary in so 

 many gardens is strange when we think 

 of the rare beauty of an old Apple or Pear 

 tree at all seasons, whether for its fine 

 form, beauty of flower, or the autumn 

 colour of fruit and leaf, and this exclu- 

 sion appears all the more strange when 

 we think that the Date Palm,theOrange, 

 Vine, Fig, and even the Mulberry — 

 trees with far less claim to beauty — are 

 nowhere considered out of place in gar- 

 dens of the south of Europe, but always 

 as aids to fine effect. Not but that your 

 Provencal is fully alive to the value of 

 his fruits, but all, even down to his 

 Gourd and his Water Melon, he groups 

 picturesquely about his dwelling, valu- 

 ing their shade and beauty of form. 



It is not everywhere that we can pass, 

 as at Penshurst, from a large flower gar- 

 den at once into walled and sheltered 

 orchards rich with fruit trees ; but in 

 many places where like opportunities 

 occur they are neglected. In hardly any 

 case, however, need we be beaten as to 

 soil, because it does not signify whether 

 the orchard is set out on a regular level, 

 as at Penshurst, or whether it occupies 

 a piece of sloping or diversified land. 



