VOL. XXXI. No. 14. 
WHOLE No. 1314. 
NEW YORK, ANI) ROCHESTER, N. Y„ APRIL 3, 1875, 
f A "' " --"“ re "': " E .»*• W«r-^ .... I.. ,»c ..me, „r « 
PRICE SIX CENTH. 
ia.()5 PEIt YEAR. 
NEW ZEALAND FLAX IN IRELAND. 
The illustration herewith given of New 
Zealand Flax os it appears in Ireland — a 
plant 12 feet high and 48 feet in circumfer¬ 
ence, one leaf measuring 14 feet in length— 
upon a gentleman's grounds, is copied from 
The Garden, which says it is frequently 
hardy out-of-doors in the south and west of 
England, but thrives remarkably in Ireland. 
It adds: 
“ In New Zealand this plant may be seen 
covering acres of ground throughout the 
three islands, over which it is, In places, 
plentifully distributed. It appears to grow 
most profusely in da np, alluvial ground— 
often upon the banks of rivers and rivulets, 
and sometimes at considerable altitudes. 
The Maoris were, and indeed still are, in the 
habit of obtaining from the leaves a most 
valuable fiber, which, when thoroughly freed 
by hand-scraping from the resinous giun 
which surrounds it, is of a soft, silky appear 
ance and texture, and of unusual strength. 
Numberless ntlemps have also been made 
by colonists to discover some method of 
cleaning this Flax, and a great many scutch¬ 
ing mills have been erected at various times, 
both in the north and middle islands, with 
this object. At one time it was considered 
that the secret lied been discovered in the 
use of ammonia, but, either from thu ex¬ 
pensive nature of this chemical when used on 
a large scale, or from Us practical failure to 
accomplish any valuuble results, the process 
was never universally adopted. The natives, 
even now, produce the best prepared Flax! 
which they scrape with sharp shells or 
knives, and, although only a comparatively' 
smali quantity can be thus rendered fit for 
the European market, it nevertheless in¬ 
variably brings the highest prices. Many 
mills, however, are still worked, and no in¬ 
considerable quantity of the Flax reaches 
England annually, in 
spite of the difficulty |--- 
which has been alluded I 
to, and the removal of ! 
which would render the 
Flax an article of export 
second only in value to 
the wool of the col¬ 
ony.” 
It is certainly a beauti- I 
ful and striking object 
on a lawn, as represent¬ 
ed, whether it is ever 
utilized or not. The 
plant is Phormium '** 
tenax, and belongs to 
the natural order Lilia- 
cese ; is perennial. Its /^ 
leaves resemble these of 
an Iris. The Rowers are - // 
produced in a tall- ^ Jy' 
branched panicle, arc- - J 
numerous, brownish 
yellow ; the fruit is a f --... .. T- 1 ^ 
three cornered capsule sfe, _ 
with numerous com- V 
pressed jet biac-k seeds. 
The liber of the leaf is - 
ver y Hue aud strong. 
The plant is endogenous, -- 
while the common Flax 
is exogenous. In all 
grounds where it is bar- 
dy it will be found a 
striking and beautiful 
feature. 
SPECIALTIES IN FLORICULTURE. 
BY E. S. CARMAN. 
Upon the principle that whatever is worlh 
doing at all Is worth doing well, yve would 
suggest to those readers of the Rural Nkw- 
Y orker yvhose floral researches are restrict¬ 
ed within narrow limits, or whose practice 
has only just begun, to confine themselves to 
oue class of plants until, as far as possible, 
they have exhausted the subject, and then 
to try another and another. Except we 
make floriculture our profession and devote 
our lives thereto, this is the only method by 
which we may hope to avoid those fields of 
inquiry that, robbed of every surface treas¬ 
ure long since, offer but the needle-in-tho- 
hay-stack promise to those w'ho toil aftor 
gems of their Own. 
Cursory, superficial care said study in flow¬ 
ers. us in everything else, leads only to that 
smattering of knowledge valuable to none 
and conspicuous only for its vanity and ob- 
trusivenefis. One single plant m its foil 
health and beauty, as has often been said, is 
more creditable than an endless variety of 
choicest irreconcilables that, in one form or 
another, exhibit a fair proportion of the ills 
to which plant life is heir, to the extermina¬ 
tion of which a frfghtfnl share of our time is 
idly spent in puttering and futile endeavors. 
I<> use an (llust ration a trifle more matter- 
of fact than elegantly forcible—as well might 
we expect trout to thrive in malarial pools or 
flounders in pebbly, swift-running brooks, as 
littonias, gesnerias and orchids in the same 
conditions us those requisite for camellias, 
fuchsias and pansies. Such motley, dis¬ 
cordant plant collections remind us of the 
attempts that have been made to confine in 
one apartment cats, dogs, mice, birds, etc., 
and uuite them in one “happy family”— 
and, in t ruth, it may be questioned whether 
the ‘‘elevating influences” of flowers, of 
which yve talk so much, are communicable 
in this way. It is true that in this as in the 
pursuit of specialties, a love of flowers is the 
at Washington.] 
incentive, but it is an incongruous, ostenta¬ 
tious love for yvhicii we are neither wiser nor 
happier, except as yve are taught by repeat¬ 
ed failures, wicked expenditures and crushed 
hopes that w*e cannot either purchase or force 
perfection in plants without liberally sup¬ 
plying the essential requisition of their 
natures. 
.Many of us, if yve can but procure a room¬ 
ful of these hot-house beauties and, commit¬ 
ting their Latin names to memory as yve 
would so many hieroglyphics wherewith to 
edify and enlighten our inexpert friends- 
who don't, gape in our faces out of a respect 
to which we are not always entitled—are 
prone to assume that yve are fairly posted in 
botanical knowledge ; an assumption that 
calls a smile to the face of the intelligent 
listener and insures for ourselves the gratify¬ 
ing consciousness that our knowledge is only 
formidable to those who cannot determine 
one plant from another. Tills is not the way 
to begin. A study of the elements of botany 
—so interesting and yet so simple— should 
engage our first attention or should at least 
go hand-in-hand with our practice. Without 
this our ravestigations will generally prove 
perplexing, mortifying and sterile. Money 
will purchase the beauties of the floral world, 
but close observation and patient inquiry are 
essential if we yve uId add to those beauties 
or understand something of their anatomy, 
physiology and hygiene. 
During the last decade country sights and 
residences within easy distances of railway 
stations, have been eagerly sought by the 
thousands of city people who have been un¬ 
willing or unable to pay the rapid and steady 
appreciation of rents aud real estate values 
in and about cities. Hence in many districts 
along raihvay lines which previously pre¬ 
sented but a rude, bleak, rudimentary 
appearance, villas, villages and towns have 
sprung up like mushrooms, and gardens, 
layvns and parks, in a period incredibly short, 
have taken the place of the old, uninviting 
flats and bald hills. Between the natives of 
I'TB'W ZEALAND 
flax. 
these districts, who act like Indians opposing 
the “march of civilization,” and the city in¬ 
novators — who become incensed at their 
cool reception—an irrepressible conflict seems 
to have prevailed from the beginning, and 
the two communities, instead of working to¬ 
gether as their interests yvouid suggest, 
array themselves against each other and 
pull in opposite directions. 
It is about tyvo years ago that we our¬ 
selves bade a Joyful adieu to the charms of 
city life and, as if we had but ourselves to 
please, labored with all our might and main 
to construct a home and lay out grounds 
that, whatever else might fairly bo said of 
them, should be stamped with some shoyv of 
individuality in the possession of decided 
characteristics of their owu. We have never 
yet, however, in a single instance, so far as 
we know, received the approbation or even 
escaped the disapproval of those hospitable 
people, who seem to deem it a species of 
sacrilege to depart unnecessarily from the 
honored ruts of their well-to-do ancestor?. 
They smiled at our crooked paths that, of 
the two extremes, we preferred too crooked 
to too straight, and did not, perhaps, hit the 
happy between. Gur flower beds were 
“shapeless,” because they didn’t resemble 
crosses, stars, circles, parallelograms or other 
decided figures. Is there aught, about a flow¬ 
er or Bhrub— in the plant, leaf, branch, habit 
or general harmony that calls for I his geo¬ 
metrical accuracy with which to encompass 
them ? Are plants so ill-ahapen and dull—oi¬ 
ls their beauty of a kind that needs so much 
adorning { The growing preference for the 
Irregular and the picturesque that delights 
in shady, secluded nooks—in free, careless 
clumps of dense foliage, here uod there, with 
winding paths that lose themselves in their 
shaded, graceful curves —with undulating 
and ever-chuuging views that seem always 
to promise more and more, blending as it 
were, in a brief area, little selections of Na¬ 
ture’s best efforts—as compared with the 
rectangular, precise laying out of grounds 
that pleases but for a 
-— moment to surfeit the 
next, with its gaudy, ob¬ 
trusive, concentrated 
beauty—is a sufficient 
answer. 
We were soon to weary 
_ ^ of our clustered flower 
hods. It didn’t “pay" 
—they had tried it—they 
s P°ke from experience. 
fe j We prided ourselves es- 
pecIWly upon a massive 
red eetlar £r ont, fence, 
• ;V- which three of our neigh- 
1 , ~ '■ 'ffp bors declared they would 
not have on their farms ! 
‘ And this brings us to our 
subject. Granting that 
' ? these criticisms, and 
- many others which need 
: t -l be recorded, are 
qnite just—if our critics 
will only grant that the 
■ j| objects of their oensori- 
i! ous. remarks are not 
|l stolen, designs, we will 
more than pardon them 
! for the grief which their 
philiippies have occa¬ 
sioned. Recurring to 
the villas that have 
t lmm l l t sprung up in every ac- 
cessibie country locality, 
has it never struck the 
reader that in the con- T 
