BEAUTIFUL 



David Mackay, a fine pure tea with 

 pointed upright flowers, large, distinct, 

 of pale yellow colour, and an excellent 

 grower (awarded the gold medal of the 

 N.R.S.); Dr. Campbell Hall, a grand 

 rose, showing that infusion of yellow at 

 the base of the petals which is such a 

 characteristic of this race, in this case 

 finely blended with the coral-rose of the 

 well-formed flowers; Duchess of West- 

 minster; Charles Graham, a hybrid-tea 

 with large flowers of crimson-scarlet 

 with pointed centre; Countess of Annes- 

 ley, with reflexed flowers in a fine shade 

 of silvery salmon; and George Dickson, 

 another hybrid-tea of the best class, 

 flowering on every shoot, and, in the 

 judgment of critics, the finest crimson 

 exhibited this year. A number of seed- 

 lings, each having its history and ori- 

 gin carefully noted, are being tested, 

 and will, it is hoped, soon be sent out as 

 worthy of a place among the great gar- 

 den Roses of our day; but as they are 

 not yet named or increased, I may not 



usefully say more of them here. 



W. J. GRANT. 



The Browsing Line. — In pastures this is often very 

 ugly arid hard, and few people seem to have the wit 

 or courage to get rid of it — by no means a difficult 

 matter. We should always remember that trees grow 

 in the true forest as columns not bushes, and the 

 isolation of a tree in pasture, by causing it to branch 

 all round, gives it often a shape far from beautiful, 

 and by allowing the cows to do the pruning we do 

 not improve matters. It is bad in another way by 

 overweighting the tree with branches, because many 

 of these lower limbs the tree itself tries to throw off 

 as they become feeble andworn out. The right thing 

 to do in many such cases is to remove the browsing 

 line by trimming as far as the true framework of the 

 tree, which often begins 10 or more feet above it. 

 The tree loses nothing of value, and in a few years, 

 if we cut away the branches a few inches from the 

 stem, the effect will be just as good and often better. 

 In many cases we have cut away the branches to a 

 height of 1 5 feet, and no harm has been done. 



IRISH ROSES. 2 6q 



A WILD GARDEN IN VIRGINIA. 



September, in this part of the country, is 

 usually a dry month. The roads are hot and 

 dusty; the garden has a discouraged air; the 

 leaves are limp and withered, and the flowers 

 droop from their stalks. The only fresh and 

 verdant spots are the banks of streams and the 

 moist places of the farm where the springs well 

 up from the limestone rocks underground. The 

 little farm at Rose Brake is bounded on the east 

 by a stream that winds through beds of Mint 

 and Moss, and many gay blossoms now in their 

 prime. On either side of the stream are acres 

 of unredeemed marsh-land of which we have 

 made a present to Nature, and over which she 

 holds sway. Here beauty revels in these Sep- 

 tember days in a riot of colour, and bold and 

 picturesque effects. This is Nature's garden, 

 far out-rivalling our poor attempts at cultivated 

 borders on dry and rocky hillsides, which are 

 only successful in spring and early summer. It 

 is to the marsh that we go with shears and bas- 

 kets now to garner some of this lavish harvest 

 of bloom for the decoration of our home and 

 the little church, and various are the surprises 

 here. In one place the stream runs between 

 beds of a low-growing, showy yellow flower, 

 the common Bidens, first cousin of the hateful 

 Spanish Needles, but which makes here a pretty 

 picture of dewy freshness by its lavish display 

 of bright golden blossoms set in greenest grass. 

 Then there are large patches of the crushed- 

 raspberry-coloured Joe-Pye-weed, with fringes 

 of Eupatorium ageratoides to give variety. In 

 another place a rank growth of Golden-rod and 

 yellow Cone-flowers is mingled with the red- 

 dish-purple of Iron-weed, and Marsh Thistles 

 6 feet in height, of the samereddish hue. Here 

 are flowers, not in primly ordered borders, but 

 in masses of bright colours, acres in extent, 

 harmoniously arranged and blended by the 

 master-hand of Nature. Here are no conflict- 

 ing hues; no stiff monstrosities; no double Sun- 

 flowers and Dahlias, and China Asters and 

 Zinnias, whose colours set one's teeth on edge, 

 all in a meaningless jumble, without form, and 

 void of beauty, such as one sees in the gardens 

 hereabouts. The effect of our bright marsh 

 garden is toned down byitsquiet settinginwild 

 shrubbery, which includes several species of 

 Willow, and Wild Roses, Viburnums, Thorns, 



