348 
FLORA AND SYLVA 
out drawings before him, which he had 
just made from fresh blooms of new 
LiUes from Central China. Many of his 
landscape pictures in oil are exquisite. 
He was fond of Constable and Gains- 
borough, but the leaning towards any 
other artist is perhaps most suggestive 
of Corot at his best. 
He used to laugh about " classing " 
artists into botanical and others, hold- 
ing that Art was all the same in kind, 
and that given the clear eye and the 
trained hand, it was the same problem 
throughout. He never worked unless 
the light and all other conditions were 
favourable : I have seen far more con- 
stant toilers who did not mind so much 
about that. He never, as is so usual 
with artists, fell into a formula or a man- 
ner — seeing all things of the open air 
change every day, he sought them daily 
with fresh eyes. I have sat to Carolus 
Duran, now the worthy chief of the 
French Academy at Rome, but a por- 
trait by Moon is the finer likeness. Any- 
one so unlike what we are accustomed 
to call a " botanical " artist it would 
be hard to find. His pictures of flow- 
ers were alive, and not the diagrams we 
often see. I remember Mr. Elliott of 
Pittsburg was with us one day , and Moon 
was drawing the Rose Madame Charles 
— the light and shade and colour were so 
true that we could hardly distinguish the 
drawing from 'the fine flower at its side. 
I often thought that if less of his work 
had been given to plant-drawing, how 
much better it would have been for 
landscape art. Latterly he was work 
mg 
more at 
land 
scape — saying. 
how 
much more interesting work of this 
kind was than any other. Among his 
best things of recent years are pictures 
in Hunts, around St. Ives. His favour- 
ite places for sketching were the Nor- 
folk Broads and the country all round 
East Bergholt, and parts of Essex. 
In January 1894 he married Mr. 
Sander's only daughter, and made his 
home at St. Albans. He was most in- 
structive as a critic and was frequently 
called upon to criticise at the London 
Sketching Clubs — " The Langham," 
" The Gilbert Garret," and others, and 
there are many young artists who owe 
him a debt of gratitude for his sure help. 
Of simple and healthy habits of life, 
and even athletic in his activity, few 
men seemed more likely to enjoy a 
long life, when he was attacked by 
one of those "malignant" internal 
growths for which there is, alas, so far, 
no remedy. His strength had been 
lessening for a long time before the 
cause was made clear, and nothing 
could be done by operation or other- 
wise to save a life so precious to us all. 
W. R. 
THE MULBERRY. 
ONCECommonin gardensthroughoutthesouth 
of Britain,the Mulberry isseldom planted now, 
though rapid of growth while young, whole- 
some and abundant in fruit, and picturesque 
in age. The beauty of old Mulberry trees is 
seen here and there in time-worn gardens up 
and down the country , where gnarledold trunks 
still "bring forth fruit in old age." Even when 
forced to their knees the prostrate branches, 
rooting as they lie, renew the fight with a stout 
heart. There is something in this determina- 
tion to die hard which appeals to a tree lover, 
as he stands before the old trees at Syon House 
or Hogarth's garden at Chiswick, or those in 
the Chapter garden at Canterbury and the 
Dean's garden, Winchester. 
