The Editor's Outlook. 



THE cactus is a curiosity, 

 r 



CACTUSES 



IN PLACE AND A one of the wonders of the 

 OUT vegetable kingdom. Itisunus- 



OF PLACE. yg^j^ ^jjjj therefore always bold 

 and striking. For this reason it is a favorite with 

 many as an object of ornamentation in lawns, and the 

 species are often used in composition for landscape 

 effect. In fact, so common is this use of cactuses 

 that we may take them to represent a type of orna- 

 mentation which is characterized by obtrusiveness 

 and uncommonness. This is almost universally the 

 form adopted by those who have a shallow love of 

 nature. It indicates that the designer is less in 

 sympathy with his surroundings than with other 

 regions, and that his desires are to be satisfied only 

 by something which appeals at once to the 

 eye as pecuHar. Such types of gardens are 

 common. One frequently sees glaring curves, 

 angular banks, balanced figures, piles of stones, 

 curiosities and abundance of abnormal and unusual 

 trees and plants, but he rarely finds a picture 

 painted in a landscape with the same taste that the 

 artist defines and composes on his canvas. And 

 even when we do find a garden created in the love 

 and appreciation of nature we are too apt to pass 

 it by as tame or commonplace. 



It is apparent that if cacti are to be used in 

 landscape work, they must be treated wholly as 

 accessories are treated, in the same manner as we 

 treat a rockery or anything which is out of keeping 

 with the general spirit of the scene. They should 

 be inconspicuous, unless perhaps near a green- 

 house or in restricted areas devoted to rarities and 

 curiosities. In this climate they should never form 

 an integral part of the landscape, for they never 

 combine well with greensward and trees; or if they 

 are used in the more natural portions of the 

 grounds, they should always be partially concealed. 



But we are not to be understood as discouraging 

 the cultivation of cactuses. We are only protesting 

 against the grossness of fashion and taste which is 

 too often confounded with landscape gardening. 

 Fashion often springs from an inharmony with 

 nature, while landscape gardening is always in- 

 spired by the genius of contiguous landscapes. As 

 greenhouse plants, cactuses possess many merits, 

 and are eminently worth much more general culti- 

 vation. They possess, in a remarkable degree, 

 curiousness and beauty, and they present an 



almost endless variety of forms and peculiarities. 

 They afford innumerable surprises. Probably 

 nearly, if not quite all the species, will some day 

 find their way into cultivation. They are mostly 

 easy of management, and they take kindly to 

 adverse conditions. Many of the species hybridize 

 freely, and they can be grafted with the greatest 

 ease. They also vary widely under cultivation into 

 the most grotesque forms. This variation is largely 

 in the direction of fasciation or the flattening or cox- 

 combing of the parts. The peculiarities of shape 

 and form, combined with the great beauty of their 

 flowers are the very features which tend to make 

 them common favorites for lawn decoration. But 

 everything must have its place, and it should be 

 borne in mind that cactuses are valuable as cactuses, 

 not as elements in the landscapes of our climates. 



It COME Relations of Botany 

 BOTANY AND HOR- O to Horticulture!" It is 



TICULTURE. , • , 



strange that m these days any 

 one should fail to see the relations of botany to 

 horticulture, strange that any apology is neces- 

 sary that the gardener should know plants. We 

 do not question the necessity of physiology to the 

 physician, nor of theology to the preacher, yet there 

 are those in high position who would discourage 

 the knowledge of plants for the plantsman ! One 

 cannot define horticulture, nor any branch of it, 

 without speaking of plants. Plants are the essence 

 of it, and botany is but the classified knowledge of 

 them. To know botany, then, is to know the fun- 

 damental principles of horticulture. To be sure, 

 one can grow plants without knowing much about 

 them. Parrots learn to talk without knowing the 

 meaning of words. But a horticulturist should be 

 more than a parrot. 



We do not care to enlarge upon the various de- 

 tails in which botany aids the horticulturist, else we 

 cheapen botany and horticulture alike. We stand 

 for the broader life which botany must bring to 

 every one who stirs the soil. We stand for its 

 educational influences, its inspirations, its emotions, 

 and its poetry. No horticulturist can rise to emi- 

 nence without a symmetrical knowledge of botany. 

 He cannot build a fire without fuel. He never 

 scans the horizon. He never looks over the garden 

 fence. He works in a treadmill. 



The more one knows of his subject and its cor- 



