PARK AND CEMETERY. 
151 
MONSTROSITIES IN TREES. 
The number of strange and curious forms which 
appear as varieties of trees are legion. There is 
scarcely a tree or shrub which has long been in cul- 
tivation but which has its cut-leaved forms, its var- 
iegations of red, white and yellow, its pyramidal 
form, its weeping, and its trailing. Every oddity 
is preserved, and the nurseryman not yet satisfied 
must still perch a trailer upon a pole and give us a 
Weeping Mulberry or a Kilmarnock Willow. 
It cannot be said but that any object which gives 
pleasure to mankind is useful. But why should men 
delight in having these strange plants about them? 
There is a state in man’s culture which leads him 
to seek and care for that which is rare and odd. 
Later, perhaps, if he goes far enough, he learns to 
love that which is beautiful. Artificial oddities like 
the Kilmarnock Willow are valuable only for their 
strangeness because they are odd. They cannot be 
said to be beautiful though some of them may have 
a certain grace. They are useful only as curiosities 
and should be regarded as such, and if they have 
any place at all, it is, of course near the house. 
Natural oddities, such as variegations, weeping 
forms, and others, have many beautiful things 
among them as the Weeping Beech and cornns ele- 
gantissima. They are nearer nature and have less 
of strangeness than the others. But, as a rule, they 
must be regarded as monstrosities and should not 
appeal to the cultivated nature as would more nat- 
ural forms. They might be well upon a lawn taken 
as individual objects but in a wild group they would 
appear wholly out of place. They do not appeal to 
us because they are not consistent. We have a feel- 
ing that they are not able to take their part in the 
struggle for existence, that as sure as they did they 
would go to the wall, that their strange variegations 
and curious forms unfit them to battle with neigh- 
bors whose shapes and colors have enabled them to 
withstand the struggle of centuries. Since they 
have all appeared as seedlings and any seedbed is 
likely to exhibit some of them, we have a right to 
think that in nature this variation has always oc- 
curred but that they were too ill-adapted to the 
struggle and finally ceased to exist. Hence as a 
part of landscape they seem out of place. They 
are inconsistent, out of keeping with the rest of the 
scene. We may delight in them near our dwellings 
where they seem in a sense under a protecting care, 
but it is a question whether in the end we should 
not be more pleased with more natural and hence 
more consistent beauty even there. The same prin- 
ciple may be extended to exotic plants in general 
where they do not seem in harmony with our native 
flora. It is not to be forgotten, however, that it is 
as important in the adornment of a lawn that a 
shrub should always be fresh and neat in appear- 
ance as that it should be natural. 
Much stress is laid upon this matter of consist- 
tency. We have it from Downing that beauty is 
obtained only when the different portions of the 
picture are at unity, and hence consistent with each 
other. Unnatural forms, unsuited to the struggle 
for existence seem inconsistent in a natural land- 
scape, hence in them as a part of landscape there is 
no real beauty. 
Rochester, N. Y. A. Phelps Wyman. 
TWO NATIVE UMBELLWORTS. 
ANGELICA ATROPURPUREA. 
This is a huge American umbellwort, rather rare 
in southeastern Michigan. It grows to the height 
of six to eight feet at least; the stem dark purple, 
very smooth and highly polished; with immense, 
finely divided, very smooth, bright green leaves. 
Umbels many flowers, not very pretty, greenish 
white. It is, however, a massive and conspicuous 
plant, suitable for places in landscape work, and to 
see it in its best development it should be scattered 
singly about. 
* * * 
HERACLEUM LAVATUM. 
For many years European and other species of 
heracleum have been cultivated in European parks 
and gardens, but, so far as the writer is aware, 
little or no attention has been paid to our native 
American species, our most gigantic umbellwort. 
Certainly, in a wild state, with its huge leaves, tall 
robust stem, towering to the height of seven to ten 
feet, topped with gigantic umbels of very pretty 
white flowers, it has a massive and grand appear- 
and, certainly commanding one’s attention. 
A year or two ago a seed accidentally came up 
in the writer’s grounds and was left to grow that 
this plant might be fully tested. This spring it 
early sent up its huge, massive leaves, each con- 
sisting of three leaflets one foot or more long and 
wide, and speedily excited the interest and admir- 
ation of visitors, who wondered what that grand 
plant could be. At three feet high, with three or 
four huge leaves, it was certainly a grand tropical- 
looking plant, well worthy of a conspicuous place 
in any grounds, far superior to what it would 
have been in a wild state. 
But the climax was reached early in July, when 
it put forth its huge umbells of very handsome pure 
white flowers ; by the way, very good in bouquet 
making. But when seeds were formed its beauty 
began to fade, and I cut it down. It at once sent 
out two or three larger leaves from the root, and 
. still continues at least conspicuous. 
Wilfred A. Brotherton. 
