The Garden Magazine, February, 1924 
361 
THE OPET^ C 0LUM ^L 
Readers' Interchange of Experience and Comment 
The Danger That Lurks in Seeds 
To the Editors of The Garden Magazine: 
N PAGE 231 of your December, 1923, issue appears a letter 
(“Does Danger Lurk in Seeds?”) from one of your readers in 
which he states that “since April last” the Federal Horticultural 
Board “has decreed that no seeds of trees or shrubs or hardy perennial 
plants shall pass through the garden gate. This is an additional 
clause of Quarantine 37.” 
Your correspondent has misunderstood the quarantine. 
Regulation 3, Item (5) of Quarantine 37 provides that seeds of fruit, 
forest, ornamental and shade trees, seeds of deciduous and evergreen 
ornamental shrubs, and seeds of hardy perennial plants not governed 
by special quarantines may be imported from countries which maintain 
inspection under permit upon compliance with the regulations. 
The fourth paragraph of the introductory note to the quarantine 
explains that these permits are open permits, valid until revoked. 
About 900 of such permits have been issued and are now effective. 
No change whatever has been made in this item since the quarantine 
first became effective June 1, 1919. 
Importers of seeds under Item (3) frequently desire to bring them in 
small quantities for which freight or express transportation is less 
economical than is shipment by mail. To meet this need, on January 
1, 1922, the Federal Horticultural Board arranged with the Post Office 
Department for a special method of mail shipment of such seeds. Such 
shipments are inspected at Washington, D. C., or San Francisco, Calif., 
without extra postage or extra charge, and require a special designating 
tag. Such special arrangements for mail shipments are made neces¬ 
sary by the system long used by the Post Office Department in handling 
parcel post packages. They interfere in no way with the importation 
of tree seeds, but in fact tend to expedite such shipments and to make 
their entry less expensive. 
Plant diseases and insect pests are known which affect tree seeds and 
a risk accompanies every importation, but in general the seed is the 
safest form in which such plants can be imported and their entry 
in this form is therefore permitted under continuing permits in un¬ 
limited quantities.—R. Kent Beattie, Pathologist in Charge, Foreign 
Plant Quarantines, Washington, D. C. 
1 can surely find them. 1 don’t know what “Creeping Jenny” is—will 
some one please tell me? I find that the perennial Anchusa winters 
all right and seeds itself, but have had only one plant really worth 
growing —that was a beauty. The annual Anchusa, similar to 
Forget-me-not, is much better to my way of thinking.— Cora Jewell, 
Darlington, Ind. 
—Creeping Jenny (Lysimachia nummularia) is a member of the 
Loosestrife family and is also popularly known as Moneywort and 
Creeping Charlie. A native of Europe, it is easily cultivated in moist 
situations. The garden variety L. aurea, with leaves wholly or partly 
bright yellow, makes a good ground carpet in shady places, and is 
useful for rustic vases and baskets.— Ed. 
Gardens of Spain 
To the Editors of The Garden Magazine: 
1 TH all the wealth of material on French and Italian gardens, it is 
strange that there are almost no available books or articles on 
Spanish gardens. The little book called Santiago Rusinol, the name 
of a Spanish painter and containing thirty-two reproductions of his 
paintings, is very welcome. The text in Spanish consists of laudatory 
remarks of the painter and his work by his friends. They all describe 
him as a man fond of the noise and crowds of the city and at the same 
time cultivating the quiet haunts and corners of old gardens slowly be¬ 
coming ruins. 
The book is very original in its makeup, with a cover in color printed 
by hand from wood blocks. The photographs of the paintings are each 
pasted in to the book separately. They represent scenes from the 
gardens of Barcelona, Mallorca, Aranjuez, and Granada, and pictures 
of the countryside of Spain. They give one the same sense of peace, 
sadness, and aloofness as the originals do. For any one interested in 
the gardens of Spain this is a book well worth owning.— Helen 
Morgenthau Fox, New York. 
Credit Where Due 
—The gateway on page 269 of the January, 1924, issue is in the gar¬ 
den of Mrs. W. G. Oliver, member of the Oak Park Garden Club, 
Illinois. 
—The Massachusetts Garden appearing on pages 276-277 of the 
January, 1924, magazine was designed by Loring Underwood, Land¬ 
scape Architect. 
A Novel Valentine for the Friend 
Who Is Ill 
To the Editors of The Garden Magazine: 
S O OFTEN when our friends are ill we 
want to send them something that will 
not only please them but something that 
will express a certain amount of individ¬ 
uality. An invalid’s room is usually a 
miniature conservatory. Flowers are in¬ 
deed lovely and we can not have too many, 
but a change is welcome—hence the con¬ 
valescent basket (see accompanying pho¬ 
tograph), a pleasing arrangement of fruit, 
flowers, and ribbon with a basket setting. 
Select a basket that is not too large and 
is pretty enough in itself to be kept and 
used for other things. In making or order¬ 
ing a convalescent basket, always consider 
the color scheme—be sure that the ribbon, 
fruit, and basket all harmonize. Always 
arrange to have the green predominate— 
green is always restful. Choose flowers 
of delicate fragrance—strong odors are to 
be eschewed in the sick room.— Jane 
Leslie Kift, Philadelphia, Pa. 
Who Grows Perennials for July? 
To the Editors of The Garden Magazine: 
A GAIN I ask, won’t some one give a 
Tv list of perennial plants that bloom in 
July, not June or August! And please give 
the botanical and catalogue names so that 
A VALENTINE WORTH GETTING 
Flowers and fruit attractively combined to gladden the eye of an invalid 
