292 
THE LADIES’ FLORAL CABINET. 
lar at a time, so that they can be readily procured when 
wanted. In the cellar they do best placed in boxes with 
damp sphagnum moss around their stalks. 
Carrots and Turnips —May be treated as advised for 
beets; or, if they are grown in quantity, they can be 
stored and brought inside, as advised for cabbage. They 
should, however, be placed in conical heaps, and covered 
with about a foot or more of earth, according to the situ¬ 
ation and exposure of the heap. 
Celery. —Full directions for storing this most important 
crop were given in the August Cabinet, to which the 
reader is most respectfully referred. I presume that all 
carefully preserve their numbers for reference. If.they 
do not, then I propose to let them go without celery for 
one season. 
Horseradish and Parsnips —Can be taken up and 
stored in heaps outside, as recommended for carrots, 
and, if desired, a portion of the crop may be allowed to 
remain in the ground for spring use, and should then be 
dug as early as possible. As these roots are perfectly 
hardy they are usually gathered last. 
Onions —Should be placed in a dry, cool situation, 
where they are not likely to freeze.' If by any chance 
they do, do not handle them when frozen and they will 
not be injured in the least. 
Potatoes —Can be easily preserved by placing them in 
barrels in any dry, cool, frost-proof cellar. 
Jerusalem artichokes, salsify and scorzonera may be 
treated precisely as parsnips. 
Pumpkins and squashes should be carefully gathered 
before frost, with a portion of the stem adhering, and 
placed in any dry, cool situation, but on no account per¬ 
mit them to freeze. Charles E. Parnell. 
Queens, N. Y., October 9, 1885. 
GARDEN ART IN CALIFORNIA. 
T HERE are some months when the usual profusion of 
bloom on the California hillsides fails almost entirely 
—the spring flowers (unsurpassed, I think, in any country 
of the world) are followed by the less profuse but more 
gorgeous summer flowers; then the summer blossoms 
fade, and an appreciable pause occurs before the autum¬ 
nal yellows appear. If one could first establish all the 
desirable native plants of the coast in a wild ravine near 
his house, and then add to the list the best of similar 
plants from other parts of the world, he would certainly 
have a wild or half-wild garden of unapproachable beauty. 
Moreover, no season of the year would seem to lack for 
fullness. We should especially aim to balance the over¬ 
whelming preponderance of yellows in our autumn fields 
by the judicious use of blues, whites and scarlets from 
autumn-bloomers of other lands. 
Objection to the wild-garden system, herein commended, 
is made by horticulturists wedded to seemingly unalter¬ 
able laws of geometric formalities and strictly-tiled bor¬ 
ders. But the “ new school ” gardeners claim, and justly, 
I think, that hundreds of fine plants thrive better in rough 
and wild places; that they look much better there than 
in tame gardens ; that as plants pass out of bloom in wild 
gardens they are unnoticed and overshadowed by later 
bloomers, so that their decay is not an eyesore; and that 
grouping of “ colonies ” of small, delicate, and beautiful 
plants never seen at present in California gardens is thus 
rendered practicable. Lastly, and of immense aesthetic 
importance to the State, it may be claimed that the work 
of acclimating and naturalizing the hardy plants famous 
and treasured in other countries is a task that might well 
occupy the best thought of garden-lovers. The English 
sparrow builds his nest in California orchards, and the 
Eastern shad swims in California rivers ; why not have 
the choicest wild plants of Spain, Bohemia, Greece, Crete, 
Italy, Persia, naturalized here? Why not make those 
plants that are most famous in song and story a part of 
the California hillside in their season ? 
In order to show how wide is the range of work pro¬ 
posed, and to display still more exactly the character of 
the typical “ wild-garden,” I shall now proceed to men¬ 
tion a few of the plants adapted to this sort of work, and 
adapted also to the Californian climate. Many, if not all, 
of them will thrive in Oregon and the Territories also. 
First, the borage , or forget-me-not family, may be con¬ 
sidered. It contains many weeds, but the tropics have 
furnished some most elegant species that few gardeners 
use one half as much as they should. The Omphalodes 
verna is of a deeper blue than the true forget-me-not, and 
planted out anywhere will take care of itself for years. 
The Caucasian comfrey has dozens of blue and pendu¬ 
lous flowers; the Bohemian comfrey is of a deep crim¬ 
son ; the white or Oriental comfrey is equally desirable, 
and all three will thrive if severely let alone—after the 
manner of a wild thistle. There are other comfreys, some 
twenty species in all; and some are trailing vines, while 
others are tall plants fit only for backgrounds. Myosotis 
dissitiflora is like blue April skies for color, and one can 
naturalize it under an oak tree or on a sloping northern 
exposure. The delicate gentian-like gromwell {L^Hsper- 
mum prostratuni) loves sunlight and rocks, and hates 
to be cultivated about. The Virginian pulmonaria only 
asks to be set by a spring or a moist spot, and left there 
for years. The Mertensia sibirica, also a lungwort, is one 
of the loveliest of newer plants, but never at its best un¬ 
der cultivation. The blue borages, the perennial Cretan 
borage, the dwarf boragewort and the evergreen alkanet, 
are also plants of this extensive family, whose best place 
is along the lanes, copses and shrubberies, or on the hill¬ 
sides, in chosen nooks, where they can become a part of 
the scene in quite other fashion than if they were set in 
prim lines according to the old school of gardening. 
Suppose there is shrubbery about the homestead, and 
it is all level ground, with no waste, no bits of descent 
and slopes where blackberry and clematis vines and wild- 
roses grow. Even here a large amount of plant-beauty 
