66 
PARK AND CEMETERY 
A FOLIAGE BED. 
A FOLIAGE BED. 
The selection and grouping of foliage plants for 
effective beds in decorative gardening affords excel- 
lent practice for the display of taste and the cultiva- 
tion of harmoious effects. The number and variety 
of plants useful for this purpose is constantly in- 
creasing, and many of the commoner kind, which 
have been overlooked by reason of their compara- 
tive familiarity are now brought into service to add 
to the richness of the foliage bed. 
The accompanying illustration is taken from 
Mo Her' s Deutsche Gartner Zeitung, Erfurt, Ger- 
many, and shows a bed of foliage plants, which was 
created to follow in quick succession a bed of hya- 
cinths, which held possession until the end of April. 
The hyacinths were then removed, the bed dug over 
and a strong fertilizer, and well rotted manure and 
rich soil added to it. The foliage plants were set out 
early in May and soon made a display continuing 
throughout the summer until by the end of Septem- 
ber the plants in the middle of the group had at- 
tained a height of some 14 feet. The bed was star 
shaped edged with Pyrethrum parvenifolium, and 
among other plants in the group are Achyranthes 
Verschafifelti, Calladiums, Hemp, Maize, Cannasand 
Ricinus. 
Although a large number of the decorative foli- 
age plants have reached a high state of culture, as 
well in leaf as in bloom, the field is still very broad 
for further development both in culture and variety 
for this class of gardening, and every effort in this 
direction is worthy of credit. 
FROM OUR EXCHANGES. 
TREE PLANTING. 
It is a gratifying thought that we are more and more 
becoming a tree-planting nation. 
Not many decades ago it could be truly said of 
Americans, in the words of the Psalmist, “A man was 
famous according as he had lifted up axes upon the thick 
tree.” To our ancestors the clearing of lands from trees 
was a necessity; to-day we realize the folly of such a 
clean sweep, even unto nakedness, as was widely made 
at their hands. A most wholesome and encouraging re- 
action is now in evidence, as is manifest in the fact that, 
according to the last census, more than one billion trees 
— perhaps fully twenty for every man, woman and child 
— are being planted every year in the nation. This takes 
into account only the trees sold from nurseries; add 
such as are transplanted from the woods and meadows. 
