THE GARDENING WORLD. 
August 8, 1S91. 
LANDSCAPE GARDENING* 
This is the title of a tastily got up and finely 
finished volume on the art of laying out pleasure 
grounds, public parks, and gardens of smaller 
dimensions, by the Superintendent of the parks at 
New York. It is no mere compendium or compilation 
of hard and dry matter of fact, suitable only for 
the landscape gardener and his skilled assistants, but 
is written in an easy and popular style that can 
hardly fail to find many readers from amongst the 
masses, not only of America but of this country. 
Except for the occasional recurrence of American 
expressions and the American spelling of certain 
words, the work might pass for English. The trees, 
shrubs and flowers used in planting the landscape in 
America are such as we are accustomed to see in ou 
every-day life. 
The work itself is a large octavo size, and runs to 
329 pages, including a good index. The paper is of 
good thickness and glazed, so that the illustrations 
(numbering 177 throughout the body of the work) are 
brought out with great perspicuity. Many of the 
engravings have been made from photographs, the 
trees and glimpses of landscape scenery constituting 
quite a feature of the work. Specially fine are the 
Kentucky Coffee-tree (Gymnocladus canadensis), the 
Weeping Beech in summer and winter, the Oriental 
Spruce (Picea orientalis), the Mugho Pine (Pinus 
Mughus), the Japan Parasol Pine (Sciadopitys verti- 
cillata), also Retinospora obtusa, various scenes in 
the Central Park, New York, and others. 
The word " lawn ” is frequently made use of where 
we would say pleasure grounds, for it includes not 
merely closely-mown grass, but trees, shrubs, 
rockeries, and other adjuncts of well-kept parks 
and pleasure grounds. It is also dealt with in the 
more limited sense of a grass carpet or green sward, 
and directions are given for the preparation of the 
ground, and the proper laying down of the same. In 
the immediate vicinity of the house the lawn and all 
its adjuncts are to be considered as forming a part of 
the mansion or residence to which they belong, and 
should be laid down and planted from that point of 
view, in due consideration to the convenience and 
taste of the inmates. 
After the laying-out or preparation of different 
grounds is dealt with, then follow a number of chap¬ 
ters on planting for distinct effects at different times of 
the year. This is a matter which is much neglected 
or altogether ignored not only in America but in 
Britain. The spring, summer, autumn and winter 
effects produced in this country are often as much 
the result of accident as anything else. Trees and 
shrubs we have in abundance, but they are fre- 
quenly planted about in a haphazard way, entirely 
independent of foliage tints at any period of the year. 
The chapter on " Lawn planting for winter effect,” is 
handled in a masterly way, and treats of the judicious 
planting of evergreens with deciduous subjects in 
particular places, so that when viewed from certain 
windows of the house, a natural and pleasing picture 
may be seen, set as it were in framework. The back¬ 
ground should be occupied with tall evergreen trees, 
such as the Norway Spruce intermingled with the 
White Birch, and having the sparsely-branched White 
Pines in front of them. The dark-hued Austrian 
Pine, Retinosporas, the Mugho Pine, Rhododendrons, 
Mahonias, and other subjects graduated as to height, 
are meant to occupy the fore-ground of the '.winter 
picture. 
The chapter on Autumnal colour on the lawn will 
also be read with interest by many. Those who have 
studied autumnal tints will find that we possess most 
if not all of the trees mentioned ; and although we 
cannot hope to realise the brilliancy of autumn 
colouring in this country as it is seen in America, 
yet many of the trees, especially the European and 
Asiatic kinds, behave differently in this country, and 
give us rich pictures of colour, whereas the same 
species in America, according to the author, remain 
green till the leaves drop. Green autumnal foliage 
also receives due consideration ; but in the British 
Isles this would almost be superfluous, as the most 
of our trees retain their midsummer hues almost till 
they drop, which is not the case in America. 
The chapter on Garden flowers is perhaps the 
weakest part of ■ the book from a British point of 
view, because flowers are more numerous and their 
* Landscape Gahdemng, L>y Samuel Parsons, Junr., Superin¬ 
tendent of Parks, Ntw York City, (G. Putnam's Sons, New 
York,. 27, West I wcnty-third Sfipot; and hpndop, 27, King 
William Street, 
cultivation carried to a much greater extent with us. 
What will strike the reader is the apparent value 
placed upon many common or native British or 
European plants. We probably, however, show the 
same weakness for common American plants. The 
common Daffodil and the variety known as Trumpet 
major are represented by double forms, both 
evidently Narcissus Telamonius plenus. The figure 
representing the Poet's Narcissus is wrong, or alto¬ 
gether misleading, for the stems bear two and three 
flowers each. Grandmother’s garden is not over¬ 
looked, but receives due consideration along with 
Lawn planting for small places, City parks, railway, 
churchyards and cemetery lawn planting. The 
chapter termed “Nookeries on the home grounds,” 
may sound somewhat novel to the English ear, but it 
simply applies to the embellishment of hidden nooks 
and corners of the garden with creepers, climbers, 
and other ornamental subjects, making what we 
would speak of as bowers, arbours, and alcoves. 
Ponds and lakes receive due consideration and are 
amply illustrated, with plants suitable for the water, 
banks of streams, and ponds as well as the background. 
The book ought to find a place on many a library 
table. 
THE DIAMOND-BACK 
MOTH. 
New Turnip Pest. 
At a recent meeting of the council of the Royal 
Agricultural Society, Mr. Whitehead, as Chairman 
of the Seeds and Plants Committee, presented a 
valuable report by the Society’s consulting entomo¬ 
logist, Miss E. A. Ormerod, on a serious and wide¬ 
spread attack of the caterpillars of the diamond-back 
moth, which had recently appeared on leafage of 
Swedes and Turnips at various localities or over 
large districts on the east of England and Scotland, 
especially near the sea coast. The area of attack 
ranges from Suffolk to Forfarshire. It exists near 
Lowestoft, and ranging northwards by Yarmouth, 
and the northerly parts of Norfolk by the sea up to 
Lincolnshire. It is ravaging at various places in 
Yorkshire, Durham, and Northumberland, then con¬ 
tinuing along the coast by Berwickshire and 
Haddingtonshire, and in districts along the Firth of 
Forth and Tay to Kinross, east and north of Fife 
and in Forfarshire. The reports received from 
correspondents describe in the strongest terms the 
severe nature of the attack, from serious injury up 
to great loss or threatened or certain failure of crop. 
The report describes at length the method of attack, 
and mentions that the great difficulty of dealing with 
it arises from the caterpillars feeding customarily on 
the lower side of the leafage of Turnips and Swedes, 
so that dry, or even fluid, dressings do not reach 
them if applied in any ordinary way; and at present 
the.best-founded hope of saving the crop rests in the 
heavy rain showers which are reported as doing good 
in various places. Miss Ormerod refers in her report 
to various preventive measures which had been 
suggested, and which might be of some service. But 
she adds that at present the only remedial measures 
that seem available are (where plants are weak) 
pushing on growth by fertilising applications, or such 
treatment as will throw down the caterpillars from 
their natural shelter under the leaves. 
Mr. Whitehead, in presenting this report, said 
this was almost a new attack in England. Curtis, in 
his “ Farm Insects,” spoke of it as happening forty 
years ago, in 1853 and 1854. It was also dangerous, in 
some comparative small degree, in England and Scot¬ 
land ; but never before had there been such extra¬ 
ordinary damage caused by this insect as it was re¬ 
ported to have done, and, unhappily, was still doing, 
in the eastern parts of England and Scotland. Broc¬ 
coli, Cabbages, Swedes,Turnips,and Cauliflowers being 
cruciferous plants, were all attacked. At the present 
time the attack was entirely on the eastern coast. It had 
been suggested that the moths had been driven from 
foreign countries by the wind ; others, with more 
probability, suggested that they had been enticed by 
the cruciferous plants which were generally found on 
the seashore. The remedy suggested by Miss 
Omerod was to put powdered soot and lime on the 
plants when the dew was upon them. Mr. Hornsby 
had stated, in an admirable report to the Seeds and 
Plants Committee, that dry materials, chiefly soot 
and lime, in the proportion of three parts of soot and 
png of lime, put on by the Strawsonmer (whose 
powerful fan seemed to drive the powder right into 
the plants), had proved the most efficacious. This 
was a most important point, because the caterpillars 
got in between the tissues of the plants, and unless 
the powder was driven forcibly against them it had 
not the power of checking the attack. 
Sir Jacob Wilson said that it was something like 
three weeks ago since his attention was first directed 
to this matter. The insects were found upon a Turnip 
crop immediately adjoining the seashore on the east 
coast of Northumberland, upon very strong land. 
His advice was that where the Turnips were com¬ 
paratively young the best treatment would be an 
immediate dressing of nitrate of soda with some 
superphosphate, to give vigour to the plant. He was 
glad to find that this treatment had had a good effect. 
Anything more deplorable than the effects of the 
attack during the past week or fortnight he could not 
conceive. There had been every prospect of a large crop 
of Turnips in Northumberland; now, in many cases, it 
was a waste desert, presenting the appearance of a 
field of gossamer. It was only in the case of the 
younger plants that they could hope to save a crop 
at all. He believed that if the Turnip could be 
dressed immediately after it had been thinned, much 
good would be done. The results of experiments 
with paraffin, soapsuds and lime afterwards went to 
show that the dry dressing was much more 
efficacious than the wet dressing. Lime was the 
basis of the treatment they would have to adopt. 
The best, he believed, was in the proportion of one 
part lime to two parts soot, because the soot gave also 
some renewed vigour to the young plant. He 
believed that a great deal of the Turnips would have 
to be ploughed up, and the great question for the 
farmers was what should be done with the land ? 
The results were simply ruinous. The present was 
an opportunity not to be missed by the Department 
which was supposed to look after the interests of 
agriculture. He believed that the Board of Agricul¬ 
ture would rise to the occasion, and not miss the 
opportunity of investigating the matter, and so do a 
little for the British farmer. 
Mr. Whitehead said the Board of Agriculture 
were intensely interested in this very important 
matter. The Board had already in hand a leaflet 
giving a full history of the insect, and the methods 
of checking its progress, which would be distributed 
that afternoon throughout the whole of the infested 
districts. Inspectors were being appointed to visit the 
infested places and make elaborate reports of the 
outbreak, adding methods of prevention and remedial 
measures which might have been found successful. 
The Board of Agriculture would be especially 
grateful to the members of the Council for intelli¬ 
gence -as to where the attack existed (naming, if 
possible, the individual parishes), in order that they 
might make inquiries and give every possible in¬ 
formation on the subject. 
INHERITED 
VARIEGATION. 
Variegated plants are usually perpetuated by 
cuttings, budding and grafting, but seldom by seeds, 
for the simple reason that seedlings usually give rise 
to the normal green-coloured and typical plant which 
produced them. Contrary to the usual rule, however, 
a large percentage of the seedlings of the variegated 
Sycamore (Acer Pseudo-Platanus variegatum) come 
regularly variegated. There are many large trees 
in the country which bear seeds abundantly, and the 
seedlings have green cotyledons ; but the first pair of 
true leaves in a large proportion of them show the 
red and creamy-white blotches very distinctly. 
The effects of heredity are carried still further in 
the variegated Columbine (Aquilegia vulgaris Vervse- 
neana), for the cotyledons themselves are variegated 
or entirely yellow in the seedlings. The variegated 
Winter Cress (Barbaria vulgaris variegata), the 
variety of a common British weed, seeds abun¬ 
dantly, and the seedlings are almost invariably 
variegated. It seems to think itself entitled to a 
place in the garden, for it comes up spontaneously 
anywhere within the walls, and is generally spared 
wffien other weeds around it are cut down. Some¬ 
thing akin to the above is the case of the Golden 
Feather, the parent of which is green, but is itself 
yellow. There are several yellow varieties in 
gardens, and the seedlings, including the cotyledon?) 
are alrrmst invariably yellow, - • 
