GARDEN NOTES FROM ENGLAND. 



465 



ties and standard pears, with tall habit and ornamental 

 leaves, fruit and blossoms, and relegating the low-grow- 

 ing, dull-leaved apples and quinces to the side or back 

 yard, he plants the yard full of low-trunked, heavy-topped 

 trees, and an uglier, more commonplace yard you need 

 not wish to see. 



Mr. Parkwood's large and well-kept estate is the pride 

 of the county. He has spared neither money nor labor 

 in planting and arranging his large private park, compris- 

 ing many acres. His grounds are considered a model of 

 good planting, and are pointed out to every stranger as 

 one of the sights of the town. How doubly unfortunate 

 it is, then, for both himself and his neighbors, that he is 

 afflicted with a curious obtuseness that deadens his per- 

 ception of any beauty in his own native trees, shrubs and 

 vines. He has Japanese cypress, Chinese magnolias, Irish 

 junipers, English holly, Norway maple and Austrian pine, 

 but not an American chestnut, oak, elm or linden He 

 has variegated maple, cut-leaved birch, blood-leaved 

 beech and weeping hemlock, but one looks in vain for 

 the feathery American larch, the beautiful liquidambar, 

 or the curious tulip-tree, with its shining, oddly cut leaves 

 unlike anything else in nature. There is not a purely 

 native rhododendron or azalea, although their Asiatic and 

 European congeners are well represented ; not a cornus, 

 cercis or laurel, celastrus or bignonia ; nothing, in fact, 

 that his poorer neighbor might admire and procure for 

 himself in wood or valley at the cost of his labor alone. 

 We all dislike the stamp of poverty. If our wealthy land- 

 owners do not make use of our native trees, be assured 

 that the mechanic and the blacksmith lcHI not. 



Judge Broadacre has made himself a charming country 

 home in what was once a tangled thicket of trees, under- 

 brush and matted vines. The Judge frankly says that he 

 came to the country to rest, not to work, and beyond an 

 orchard and a hedge of cedars he has not planted so much 

 as a bush or root on his place. However, he has a keen 

 eye for the picturesque in nature, and his grounds were 

 cleared off in a highly artistic manner, under his own 

 supervision. Here and there, as suits his roomy grounds, 

 broad belts of forest-timber are left that make the setting 

 for a perfect picture of rural tranquility. Some trees 



are left about the home grounds — fine, nobly-developed 

 specimens, every one. There is a natural arbor of three 

 young ironwoods, overgrown and knit together by a giant 

 grape-vine that hides their clustered tops under a thick 

 canopy of richest green. Grand tree-like specimens of 

 dogwood, redwood and service-berry are left standing, and 

 some of the tall forest-trees are wreathed from trunk to 

 top with native ampelopsis and bignonia that change in 

 autumn from bright green to scarlet and gold. The 

 mountain-clematis and woodbine clamber over the rocky 

 bluff that skirts the river-banks, and the giant cedars left 

 standing at its base are so tall that the children can reach 

 their blue berries from the rocks above. Everything is 

 natures own handiwork, but nothing could be more artistic 

 or delightful. 



One of Judge Broadacre's neighbors is Mr. Wiseman. 

 His grounds are less extensive than the Judge's, but are 

 even more attractive, for here art goes hand in hand with 

 nature Some people think Mr. Wiseman eccentric. He 

 reads his wife's floral catalogues, and he asks her to read 

 his catalogues of trees. He marks with a horizontal dash 

 such flowers, shrubs and trees as strike his fancy ; she 

 marks with a cross such as she likes. Then he puts by the 

 catalogues for a week or two, as one does a half-ripe apple 

 to mellow, and when he again takes them out it is easy 

 for the matured judgments of the two to skim the cream 

 from their original selection. With as great a liking for 

 evergreens as Mr. Conifer, and as much admiration for 

 rare trees as Mr. Parkwood, Mr. Wiseman never forgets 

 the size of his grounds, which are roomy without being 

 extensive, and plants nothing unless he has a place for it. 

 You will see him and his wife carefully viewing, comput- 

 ing and planning just where this tree can go, and how 

 much space it will occupy at maturity, where this bush 

 will look the best or where that vine can find support, 

 before they make an order for florist or nurseryman. 

 This lawn is not cluttered with a jumble of sprawling 

 bushes called shrubbery, a mass of shapeless flower-beds 

 and sorry "specimen" plants. Every stranger stops to 

 admire his beautiful and well-kept grounds, which in 

 summer or winter always present something attractive in 

 leaf, bloom or fruit. Lora S. La Mance. 



GARDEN NOTES FROM ENGLAND. 



TWO REMARKABLE HYBRID ORCHI 



I N E of the prettiest hybrid orchids is 

 Cypripedium iViobc . I recently saw 

 a fine form of it named superbum, 

 having flowers larger and deeper in 

 color than those of the type. C. Niobe, 

 for delicate beauty, dainty expression 

 and warm coloring stands unique. It 

 was raised by the Messrs. J. Veitch & Sons' hybridist, John 

 Seden, who crossed the Assam variety, C. Fairieanuyn ,\\\\\-\ 

 C. Spiceriamim, a species that has not been much used in 

 the hybridization of cypripediums. In C. A'iobe we have 

 fortunately much of the character of C. Fairicanum, 



while it derives a robust constitution and freedom of 

 bloom from the other parent. Its strongest likeness to C. 

 P'airieamun is in the petals, which curl like horns, and 

 are deep green suffused with dull brown ; the lip of the 

 flower is lighter, shining as if polished ; the dorsal sepal is 

 white in the upper portion, striped with purple in the-cen- 

 ter, and the base is deep green. This fine sepal measures 

 about zYz inches in diameter; the several seedlings vary 

 very slightly in general character. The habit of the plant 

 is neat, and to show its free-blooming habit I may men- 

 tion that I saw three finely developed flowers on a small 

 seedling plant. We are delighted with this cypripedium, 



